LG Energy Solution to strike natural graphite supply deal with Syrah Resources

South Korean lithium-ion battery maker LG Energy Solution announced Thursday it has signed a provisional deal with Australian graphite supplier Syrah Resources to diversify its supply sources for making graphite anodes typically used in electric car batteries. Under a memorandum of understanding, LG and Syrah on Wednesday tentatively agreed on a 2,000 metric ton graphite supply deal in 2025 as Syrah's graphite mines become operational. The two companies will ink the final supply contract by the

Oct. 20, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic and the way forward

The COVID-19 pandemic has marked a turning point in the history of vaccine development, two top experts told The Korea Herald Biz Forum held in Seoul on Wednesday. Speaking at a special session titled “Technology for cure,” Moderna co-founder Robert Langer and International Vaccine Institute Director-General Dr. Jerome Kim shared their thoughts on how the global health crisis led to major advances in vaccine technology and what lessons humanity learned from it. The session was mode

Oct. 19, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] 'Web 3.0 to change the way people live'

The world is shifting toward a world of Web 3.0, the emerging blockchain-based platform, and the new era will drastically change the way people live, according to chairman of BOSagora Foundation Kim In-hwan, who spoke at The Korea Herald Biz Forum held at Four Seasons Seoul on Wednesday. As Web 3.0 moves away from having a central authority that governs the operations of the web, it will utilize its blockchain-based decentralized structure to strengthen individuals' ownership rights over their c

Oct. 19, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] Brace for second era of the digital age: Don Tapscott

Humanity is entering a second era of the digital age, with the rise of new technologies such as blockchain and the virtual world. In its transition, new leaders will emerge, which could include South Korea, renowned tech visionary Don Tapscott said. “There’s no reason why one of the global centers can’t be Korea,” Tapscott, the executive chairman of Toronto-based Blockchain Research Institute, said Wednesday in Seoul pointing to this Asian country’s strength in rel

Oct. 19, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] Naver’s AI evolving to eliminate care blind spots

Tech giant Naver is delving deeper into artificial intelligence with its supersized HyperClova platform trained in the Korean language, and hopes to use the technology to connect to users on a deeper level to identify their needs, said a ranking executive leading the development. Portraying how society would be a much warmer place for the elderly and those with health conditions with advanced AI, Naver Clova CIC Executive Officer Sung Nako introduced the firm’s voice AI-powered services,

Oct. 19, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] Virtual human aims to go beyond human: Locus-X CEO

Virtual humans, or digital representations of human beings, have already started to take over human jobs, and are now on their way to strengthen their presence in the virtual world, according to Locus-X CEO Baek Seung-yeop. “In the early stages of virtual humans, they tried to be more ‘human-like.’ But now, they aim to go ‘beyond human’ and show great potential in the virtual world,” said Baek during his speech at The Korea Herald Biz Forum 2022 held at the

Oct. 19, 2022

[KH Biz Forum] 'Science communicator’ underscores human connection

Mammals survived because their social ability to get information from other beings evolved. An animal cub may not know that a volcano has erupted, but once it sees other animals run in fear, it feels their fear and knows that it has to run with them to survive. Human children start to acquire social intelligence by reading non-linguistic signs such as other humans’ facial expressions, gestures and actions, in addition to learning language. Human brains have the ability to understand and em

Oct. 19, 2022

KakaoTalk loses 2 million users; Line, Telegram see bump in new members

Popular South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk lost some 2 million users following an outage which began Saturday and lasted hours, industry tracker data showed. The number of KakaoTalk users was estimated at 39.05 million on Sunday, down 2.07 million from Friday when the figure stood at 41.12 million, according to an analysis by industry tracker WiseApp on Monday. But as the country’s most popular messaging app suffered a loss of users in the wake of the app's longest outage to date si

Oct. 18, 2022

Kakao, SK C&C begin quiet dispute over data center shutdown

Kakao Corp. and SK C&C on Tuesday voiced subtle differences over how the weekend server outage went down at the SK facility -- which houses Kakao’s data center -- foreshadowing possibilities of future legal disputes over damage compensation. According to each company’s officials, SK C&C claimed that only some of the electricity to the data room containing Kakao’s servers were cut off by the fire, while Kakao insisted that a majority of its servers at SK C&C’s

Oct. 18, 2022

Is US export ban forcing Korean chipmakers to exit from China?

The long-term business prospects of South Korean memory chip giants like Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are at their lowest points in China, despite being granted a one-year waiver to temporarily steer clear of chipmaking tool import restrictions to their Chinese fab plants. Experts say the uncertainties will inevitably force Korean chipmakers to relocate their chipmaking facilities, especially the most advanced fabs. "It’s possible that Korean memory chip manufacturers may try to u

Oct. 18, 2022

[Newsmaker] Kakao Outage: What happens when a country heavily relies on one super app?

Tech giant Kakao has said most of its services have been restored following an extended outage that began Saturday. But as the country suffered a digital blackout for many hours, the dominance of its "super app" has been called into question. Launched in 2010 as a messaging app, KakaoTalk grew in popularity exponentially over the years and branched out to other areas such as shopping and banking. Kakao also launched in-house apps that work in connection with KakaoTalk, such as ride-hai

Oct. 17, 2022

Up to W22b sales loss estimated for Kakao over service disruption

The aftermath of Kakao’s sudden shutdown continued Monday, as South Korea’s largest messenger app operator claimed its service failures due to a fire at SK C&C’s data center over the weekend would have limited financial impacts, while analysts predicted Kakao would suffer up to 22 billion won ($15.3 million) in sales loss in the fourth quarter. Kakao has set up an emergency committee, headed by its co-CEO Hong Eun-taek, to investigate the cause of the disastrous shutdown, c

Oct. 17, 2022

Samsung opens remote offices to boost hybrid working

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics announced Monday it has opened six shared working spaces to nurture a hybrid work environment and flexible work culture. Two of the six spaces are located outside Samsung offices, in Seoul and Daegu, and the other four in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province; Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province; Gwangju; and Seoul are within Samsung office buildings. These co-working spaces, dubbed "d'light," feature open seats, partitioned desks, adjustable standing desks,

Oct. 17, 2022

Kakao suffers worst server outage, with no complete recovery in sight

A day has passed since Kakao Corp., the operator of the immensely popular messenger app KakaoTalk, suffered its worst server outage due to a fire at its data center, but there was no complete recovery in sight as of midday Sunday. “The Pangyo data center is our main data facility that operates around 32,000 servers, but only one third of them – 12,000 servers – have been restored,” Yang Hyun-seo, a Kakao vice president, said during a press conference held in the afternoon

Oct. 16, 2022

After server outage, users search out Kakao alternatives

The longest-ever server outage for KakaoTalk, the nation's most popular messenger app, and its affiliated services, is prompting people here to seek alternatives, according to data on Sunday. As of 3 p.m. Sunday, the top downloads on Apple's app store were alternatives for Kakao's popular apps. Naver's messaging app Line topped the list, rising six steps since Saturday, while taxi reservation app UT came in second, with GPS location service Naver Map coming in third. Other mobility apps, such a

Oct. 16, 2022

[Breaking] Fire at Kakao data center causes servers to go down

A fire Saturday at a Kakao data center in Pangyo, south of Seoul, has led to a server outage affecting the KakaoTalk messenger app, along with other apps such as Kakao T, Kakao Map, Kakao Metro, Kakao Webtoon, Kakao Bank, Kakao-owned portal Daum and music streaming service Melon. The internet connection for the apps has been unavailable since 3:30 p.m. "There has been a fire at SK C&C data center since 3:30 p.m. Work has begun to put down the fire, but we are uncertain when the fir

Oct. 15, 2022

S. Korean virtual human to advertise at Thai landmarks

Onmind, a subsidiary of South Korean game-maker Neptune, said Friday its artificial intelligence virtual human model Sua has signed a three-year modeling deal to work with Thai advertising firm DDD. DDD advertises for large Korean conglomerates, Thai Airways and global luxury brands such as Chanel and Dior. It currently has advertisement billboards at major landmarks in Bangkok including Suvarnabhumi Airport, and malls Siam Paragon and MBK Center. Under the contract, Sua will appear on billboard

Oct. 14, 2022

Samsung digital wallet service to arrive at 13 more countries

Samsung Wallet, a digital wallet and digital certificate platform known as Samsung Pay in South Korea, will become available in 13 more countries by the end of this year, tech giant Samsung Electronics announced Friday. The service will be expanded to Bahrain, Denmark, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates. With Samsung Wallet, Galaxy users can organize digital keys, payment cards, boarding passes, as well as ide

Oct. 14, 2022

[Graphic News] Deaths in S. Korea hit record high last year amid rapid aging, pandemic

　The number of deaths in South Korea hit an all-time high last year due largely to rapid aging and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed. 　A total of 317,680 people died in the country last year, up 12,732 people, or 4.2 percent, from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. 　The 2021 tally marked the largest since 1983, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. 　The spike in deaths was mainly attributable to rapid aging, and COVID-19 was the

Oct. 14, 2022

LG Energy Solution to complete commitment for 1st Ultium Cells factory

South Korean lithium-ion battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution is set to complete a $916 million capital commitment for a factory in Ohio under Ultium Cells, LG’s joint venture with General Motors, as the factory prepares for mass production in the near future, a filing showed Thursday. LG Energy Solution's US subsidiary will have its committed capital to Ultium Cells fully earmarked by Friday, as LG's payments first began in January 2020, according to the filing with the Finan

Oct. 13, 2022