Samsung-backed Rainbow Robotics to co-develop firefighting robots

South Korean humanoid robotics company Rainbow Robotics said Monday it is joining a 17.4 billion won ($13.36 million) state-run project to develop robots specialized for firefighting. Overseen by the Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence, affiliated with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the project aims to create two advanced firefighter robots by 2028. One robot is designed to navigate disaster zones, with the ability to swiftly and precisely locate human presence. The other is ex

Aug. 7, 2023

[KH Explains] Competition heats up in foldable phones

Competition over the growing foldable smartphone market is growing fiercer, as Samsung seeks to maintain the market dominance it has enjoyed since the launch of its first foldable phone in 2019, while Chinese rivals are racing to catch up. Xiaomi and Oppo have reportedly passed the Chinese government’s certification and are expected to roll out their new foldable phones, the Mix Fold3 and Find N3, respectively, within this month, according to industry sources on Sunday. Chinese consumer el

Aug. 6, 2023

Naver marks record operating earning in Q2, net profit jumps 80%

Naver, South Korea’s largest online portal, logged a record quarterly operating profit in the April-June period, backed by its strong performance in commerce, financial technology and content, the company said Friday. In a regulatory filing, the internet giant reported its sales posted 2.4 trillion won ($1.83 billion) in the second quarter this year, increasing 17.7 percent on-year and 5.6 percent compared to the previous quarter. The company’s operating profit stood at 372.7 billion

Aug. 4, 2023

LG sets up $100m global startup investment fund with Clearbrook

LG Electronics said Thursday it has forged a strategic alliance with Clearbrook, a global investment advisory and asset management, to collaborate on a venture capital fund targeting more than $100 million. The venture capital fund, dubbed Nova Prime Fund, is aimed at fostering companies advancing innovations to build a better future, and will be investing in those participating in the Mission for the Future Program sponsored by LG Electronics' North America Center for Innovation, LG said.

Aug. 3, 2023

Kakao plans new cost-efficient AI

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s No. 1 messenger app KakaoTalk, said Thursday that it plans to introduce a new artificial intelligence foundation model to balance performance and cost efficiency, as well as services integrated to the model after October this year. Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek said at the company’s earnings conference that he believes that a sole hyperscale model would not be suitable for providing every service under the most optimized conditions. “Many AI model

Aug. 3, 2023

SK Inc. C&C to build Korea’s 1st alternative trading system

SK Inc. C&C, the IT solutions unit of SK Group, said Wednesday that it will build South Korea’s first alternative trading system, scheduled to launch in the latter half of next year. The IT service provider will construct a comprehensive operation and management system to support the trading, brokerage, solicitation and agency services for listed securities and depositary receipts that Nextrade will carry out with its official authorization in the following year. Nextrade is an alter

Aug. 2, 2023

[KH explains] Japan’s reviving chip industry unlikely to pose direct threat to Korea – for now

Japan, which supplied more than half of semiconductors in the global market in the 1980s, is now seen revamping its strategy to reclaim past glory, introducing state subsidies and setting an ambitious goal to mass produce the most cutting-edge chips. As geopolitics is playing out to reshape the global semiconductors industry -- mainly the intense rivalry between the US and China -- eyes are on whether Japan will come to take a meaningful share in the market, where competition is already fierce.

Aug. 1, 2023

Naver Pay eyes Chinese debut this year

Naver Financial, a financial platform owned by South Korean internet giant Naver, said Tuesday it aims to introduce a mobile payment system to be used at stores in China, allowing the company to provide a better shopping experience mainly for Koreans traveling there. The company has recently signed partnership agreements with Alipay Plus and China UnionPay, two of China’s top three mobile payment services that also include WeChat Pay, as it aims to launch its popular mobile payment servi

Aug. 1, 2023

[KH Explains] Users abandoning Meta's Threads after explosive start in South Korea

Threads, the text-based social media platform built by Meta to rival Twitter, now called X, has seen a staggering decline in the number of daily active users in Korea, just within two weeks of its launch. Last Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Threads has lost more than half of its users globally, after attracting more than 100 million signups, calling the regression normal and pledging to add more features to keep users engaged. The app has emerged as the first noteworthy social

July 31, 2023

SK highlights groupwide outreach in 2023 report

SK Inc., the strategic investment holding company of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group, published its annual environmental, social and governance reports Monday, including details of the company’s business management and climate-related finance plans. The company said it has released three such reports: the sustainability report carrying the company’s ESG management strategy; the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure with the company’s climat

July 31, 2023

LG CNS launches alliance to promote enterprise agility

South Korean IT solutions provider LG CNS said Monday it has formed a trilateral alliance with US-based Scaled Agile and Seoul-based cloud and agile service provider Open Source Consulting to strengthen its business in building and improving cloud-optimized applications. The three firms signed a memorandum of understanding to make joint efforts to explore and foster business opportunities for application modernization based on the Scaled Agile Framework, an enterprise agility framework provided

July 31, 2023

[Beyond Earth] Contec leads Korea's space foray

Over 50 space companies from across the globe gathered on Jeju Island on June 28 to attend the opening ceremony of the International Space Summit. They came together to discuss trends in the space industry, in launch vehicles, ground station networks, satellite image analysis and other areas. The two-day ISS was organized by Contec, a local startup specializing in satellite-to-ground station services. “There has never been any space conference of such a size in our country,” Lee Sung

July 30, 2023

Samsung calls 2023 milestone year for global foldable phone market

Samsung Electronics, who leads the world's foldable smartphone market, is confident it can solidify its position by selling over 10 million units of its new foldable smartphones globally this year. Samsung Electronics’ mobile head Roh Tae-moon said he sees 2023 being the "tipping point" when foldable phones gain mainstream adoption. “We expect global foldable phone shipments to exceed 20 percent of all Galaxy flagship smartphones this year,” Roh said during a pre

July 28, 2023

SK Telecom-led global AI alliance launched

Led by South Korea’s SK Telecom, a new global alliance has been formed as four major telecommunications firms from South Korea, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore join hands to expand cooperation in the artificial intelligence business. The nation’s No. 1 telecom company in terms of subscriptions said Thursday that it hosted the Global Telco AI Alliance CEO Summit, a hybrid event held both online and offline, in Seoul and gathered key executives of Deutsche Telekom, e&am

July 27, 2023

LG upbeat about automotive biz

LG Electronics, a leading home appliance supplier, said Thursday it has achieved the highest second-quarter revenue in company history at 19.9 trillion won ($15.6 billion), overcoming the sluggish demand situation the world’s consumer appliance market is experiencing. Backed with overall growth in its business portfolios, especially automotive parts and electric vehicles, LG said it will expand investment and build new manufacturing facilities overseas. In a regulatory filing, the tech gia

July 27, 2023

Samsung logs W4.3tr profit loss in chips, predicts recovery in H2

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, said Thursday it will further slash memory chip production and gear up to respond to the rising demand for artificial intelligence-related chips, as its chip business reported a consecutive drop in operating profit for the second quarter this year. In a regulatory filing, Samsung reported it achieved 60 trillion won ($47.1 billion) in consolidated revenue in the April-June period, down 6 percent from the previous quarter and 22.3

July 27, 2023

[Contribution] Cybersecurity in the era of conversational AI

By Jung Chang-lim In November 2022, the release of the conversational artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT by the US startup OpenAI caused a significant impact. Unlike existing models, ChatGPT demonstrated the ability to understand the context of language and engage in conversations that resembled interactions with humans. Moreover, it even ventured into the realm of human creativity. Within just two months of its launch, ChatGPT garnered overwhelming popularity, surpassing 100 million month

July 27, 2023

[From the Scene] Samsung's new foldable phones unveiled in festive mood in Seoul

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its new Galaxy foldable smartphone series in Seoul in front of nearly 2,000 people, including journalists, industry experts, celebrities and influencers from around the globe. The South Korean tech giant held the summer edition of the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event, at Coex in southern Seoul to introduce its latest foldable smartphone lineup -- the Galaxy Z Flip5 and the Galaxy Z Fold5. Samsung also unveiled the new Galaxy Watch 6 series and Galaxy T

July 26, 2023

Samsung's new foldable phones return with upgraded hinges, bigger screens

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its new Galaxy foldable smartphone series with a bigger screen, lighter weight and a new hinge design, expressing confidence in realizing an “innovative foldable phone experience” for users. The South Korean tech giant kicked off the summer edition of the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event at Coex in southern Seoul at 8 p.m., with some 1,500 journalists and industry people in attendance. Wednesday’s event was all the more special to Sam

July 26, 2023

Samsung Biologics posts all-time-high earnings for H1

Samsung Biologics said Wednesday that the company’s earnings in the first half reached all-time highs, with 1.59 trillion won ($1.23 billion) in sales and an operating profit of 445.2 billion won, supported by a solid contract-winning spree. Compared with the first half of last year, Samsung Biologics' sales increased by 36 percent, while its operating profit climbed 29 percent. Samsung Biologics’ attributed its improved earnings this year to the large-scale contract manufacturi

July 26, 2023