Kakao Taxi to feature auto payment system within H1

Kakao Taxi, a taxi hailing app operated by South Korea’s mobile giant Kakao, will feature a new automated payment function within the first half of this year, the company said Tuesday.　Kakao has entered a new partnership with Korea Smart Card Co. to jointly introduce an auto pay option on the KakaoTaxi app that is widely used by those in Korea. Once the new feature is added, KakaoTaxi app users will be presented with an “auto payment” option which would automatically pay for the taxi fare when t

Feb. 17, 2017

[HERALD INTERVIEW] Ericsson-LG to join hands with Korean mobile stars: chief

Ericsson-LG CEO Patrick Johansson (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Ericsson-LG, a network equipment and solution provider, will expand its business in South Korea to mobile and media services, taking advantage of the country’s fast internet speed, said the company’s CEO Patrick Johansson. The company, established between Sweden’s largest network business and LG Electronics in 2010, is now in talks with leading mobile businesses such as Naver and Kakao in order to help improve the efficiency of mo

Feb. 16, 2017

Dual camera, boon for Samsung Electro-mechanics, LG Innotek

Korean parts firms Samsung Electro-mechanics and LG Innotek’s profits have been buoyed by growing demand for dual camera phones in the global market, industry watchers said on Thursday. A dual-camera smartphone is a handset sporting two rear camera lens that typically work together to provide unique photography with different view angles and focuses. LG Innotek, which produced the world’s first dual cameras in 2011, went ahead of its rivals after becoming a sole supplier to Apple’s iPhone series

Feb. 16, 2017

Korea to deregulate AI, VR, fintech sectors

South Korea announced plans Thursday to ease regulations on three industries -- artificial intelligence, virtual reality and financial technology, or fintech -- as part of the government's aggressive deregulation drive to find a new growth engine.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning reported a set of deregulation measures to Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn to deregulate the three sectors amid the fast-paced industrial transformation, dubbed the "fourth industrial re

Feb. 16, 2017

Over half of portal users unhappy with ads

More than half of Internet users in South Korea said they were unhappy with advertisement banners and links on screen when they use search engines, a report said Thursday. According to a report by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, 55.9 percent of Naver users that browse mostly on PCs said they are unhappy with the ads, with 54.6 percent of those who use Daum on desktops answering the same.  (Yonhap)The survey was carried out in November last year, based on 1,525 Internet porta

Feb. 16, 2017

Startup eyes supply of homegrown FMD vaccine next year

South Korean startup Pharos Vaccine Inc. said Thursday it may supply a homegrown vaccine against food and mouth disease next year as the country is grappling with the worst outbreak of the animal disease in seven years.South Korea is suffering from a serious undersupply of FMD vaccines as the country is hit by the simultaneous outbreak of type A and type O viruses. Since the first outbreak on Feb. 5, nearly 800 cows have been culled so far, raising concerns that the animal disease is spreading n

Feb. 16, 2017

Naver, Kakao aim to transform e-commerce with ‘chatbots’

South Korean internet technology giants Naver and Kakao have begun to incorporate artificial intelligence “chatbots” into their platforms, seeking to become key stakeholders in the fast-growing online commerce sector. Chatbots are AI-powered computer programs that can mimic human conversations and react to spoken or written prompts to deliver services. Global IT firms like Facebook and Google have already introduced chatbots for businesses on its mobile messengers which can handle tasks such as

Feb. 15, 2017

Apple seen gauging Apple Pay service in Korea

Apple’s executives recently held a meeting with South Korean financial authorities, a move that can be viewed as the company testing the waters before fully reviewing a potential launch here, sources said Wednesday. “Apple’s legal director and senior counselor came to Korea in November to have a meeting with financial authorities. They explained Apple Pay’s technical operation and security method -- tokenization,” a source familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald. Tokenization, which Samsu

Feb. 15, 2017

VR cafe opens in Seoul under hardware-content partnership

A virtual reality cafe opened Wednesday in western Seoul in partnership between a PC manufacturer and VR content provider who are collaborating on a joint project for business expansion.The cafe, named VRIZ, opened near Hongik University campus that has one of the highest foot traffic in the capital. It will be operated by PC maker Jooyon Tech Co. with YJM Games supplying VR games and other related contents. (Yonhap)While there are other VR-focused businesses in major cities that set up shop fro

Feb. 15, 2017

Institute develops anti-counterfeit technology using laser-induced patterns

A state-funded research institute said Wednesday that it has developed new anti-counterfeit technology to create unforgeable laser-induced patterns that can be applied to various products such as watches and checks.The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said it has successfully engraved the micro-sized patterns with a hole that is smaller than 10 micrometers by using two laser beams. (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning)So far, it was virtually impossible to create such micro-si

Feb. 15, 2017

Acting president cautions against negligence in investing for the future

Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Wednesday cautioned against any negligence in investing for the future, underscoring the need for South Korea to capitalize on its technological edge to nurture new growth engines.During a joint session held by the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology, and the state science and technology strategy panel, Hwang also reiterated that the government has to further strengthen support for startups through a policy initiative that

Feb. 15, 2017

Korea to utilize ICT to revitalize economy

South Korea announced a package of measures Wednesday to utilize information and communications technology  and science technology to revitalize the country's economy suffering from weak exports and flagging manufacturing sector.Under the measures discussed in a meeting presided over by Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, and announced by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the government will make use of the latest ICT to secure new growth engines.  Acting President

Feb. 15, 2017

Streaming content on rise due to LTE service

South Korean Internet users have increasingly streamed content instead of downloading them though wireless services, government data showed Wednesday, mainly on the back of the introduction of a long-term evolution service based on fourth-generation wireless technology.Internet traffic from video streaming services and video-on-demand, such as Youtube and Netflix, accounted for 56.1 percent of the total wireless data traffic in December 2016, compared with 45.1 percent tallied in December 2013,

Feb. 15, 2017

Koreans rank Kakao, Samsung as top IT firms

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been rated the country’s “most promising” information technology company, according to a research report Tuesday.　According to a nationwide survey conducted by Seoul-based market research provider Consumer Insight, Kakao ranked No. 1 in terms of the most promising IT company. Kakao’s forays into new services beyond its flagship mobile messenger -- including taxi hailing, navigation, financial technology as well as beau

Feb. 14, 2017

Netmarble Games begins major work culture reform

South Korea’s Netmarble Games, which has faced criticism for the heavy workload imposed on its employees, has kick-started efforts to reform its work culture, the company announced Tuesday.　The move came amid both internal and external calls to improve the working conditions of the country’s biggest mobile game company.　From Monday, Netmarble officially began implementing new measures aimed at improving the company’s work environment, such as banning overtime work and unpaid work on weekends as

Feb. 14, 2017

Govt. to pour W100b into new energy technologies this year

The government here will invest about 100 billion won ($87.64 million) into empirical research on various energy technologies this year, officials said Tuesday.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled the investment plan during a meeting with energy experts at a regional office of Korea Electric Power Corp. in Seoul. (Yonhap)The plan calls for increasing the government's spending on empirical research into new energy technologies by 24 billion won from last year to about 100 billion w

Feb. 14, 2017

[Photo News] New and affordable

An employee introduces Dongbu Daewoo Electronics’ new wall-mounted air conditioner, which costs between 400,000 won ($356.1) and 600,000 won. Its 4D Max Auto Swing feature enables adjustment of the wind direction. (Dongbu Daewoo Electronics)

Feb. 14, 2017

KT to provide solution for Australian mobile stethoscope

KT has signed a memorandum of understanding on a global digital health care business with Australian mobile health care startup M3DICINE, the mobile carrier said Tuesday. M3DICINE is a startup established by Dr. Nayyar Hussain, who is currently preparing to launch a 110-gram mobile stethoscope called “Stethee.” The wireless stethoscope will be able to be connected to various mobile devices. Stethee (KT)Under the memorandum, KT will provide its digital solution to Stethee, which will enable the t

Feb. 14, 2017

Mobile users with traditional numbers fall below 1 mln

South Korean mobile service users with traditional numbers, starting with old prefix such as 011 and 016, significantly dropped to below 1 million, the government said Tuesday, more than a decade after the introduction of a prefix number integration policy.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said a total of 970,000 people were using mobile numbers that start with 011, 016, 017, 018 and 019 as of the end of January.  (Yonhap)In 2004, the government introduced 010 as a unified telepho

Feb. 14, 2017

Mobile Doctor targets 1.5m downloads of fever management app for children

Mobile Doctor, a company that has developed a mobile application service to help manage fevers in children, announced Tuesday that it aims to achieve 1.5 million downloads of its application (500,000 in Korea, 1 million overseas) by the end of the year. Fever Coach, the mobile application developed independently by Mobile Doctor, was designed to help parents monitor their children’s fevers based on body temperature, vaccination history and medical records. Using an algorithm based on big data, t

Feb. 13, 2017