Hopes high for Publicis-Cheil tie-up

Expectations are high for French ad giant Publicis Groupe’s rumored purchase of a controlling stake in Cheil Worldwide, Samsung Group’s advertising agency.According to news reports and industry sources Monday, Publicis, one of the world’s top three ad companies, is considering acquiring a 30-percent stake in Cheil, which has a market value of $1.9 billion. Publicis and Cheil have not yet released respective official statements about the reports, but industry watchers see their partnership as ver

Jan. 18, 2016

[Photo News] KT to build smart farms with Japanese theme park operator

  KT TO BUILD SMART FARMS -- Yoon Kyung-lim(left), head of mobile carrier KT’s future convergence business office, and Katsuyuki Kitagawa, CEO of ASO Farm Land -- operator of the world’s largest agriculture-themed park in Japan -- pose at the MOU signing event to collaborate on building smart farms in Korea, deploying information technology. (KT)

Jan. 18, 2016

LG Uplus halts online ads featuring Taiwanese K-pop singer

Controversy over a Taiwan-born K-pop singer, who became the center of a political dispute between China and Taiwan for holding the national flag of the island nation on a TV show, is affecting the IT sector in Korea.Mobile carrier LG Uplus said Monday that it would “temporarily stop the online commercials for Chinese handset-maker Huawei’s Y6 smartphone,” featuring Chou Tzu-yu, better known as Tzu-yu here, a member of multinational K-pop band Twice.LG Uplus’ online commercial for Huawei’s Y6 sma

Jan. 18, 2016

SKT-CJ merger sparks paid TV war

SK Telecom and LG Uplus engaged in a verbal duel last week about the former’s planned acquisition of CJ HelloVision, the nation’s No. 1 cable TV operator. On Thursday, LG Uplus CEO and vice chairman Kwon Young-soo publicly criticized the deal, saying: “The deal would hurt fair competition. The government should put the brakes on it.”SKT responded immediately. “Even after the merger, there would be no drastic change in our market share. Instead, we can offer more diverse options to consumers,” th

Jan. 17, 2016

[Photo News] Samsung's tranparent wall

Samsung Electronics on Sunday unveiled a transparent OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, display video wall at the BMW Driving Center in Yeongjongdo Island, Incheon. The futuristic display, boasting a 45 percent transparency rate, allows visitors to see every corner of the BMW 7 Series sedan. (Samsung Electronics)

Jan. 17, 2016

[Photo News] SKT’s new budget smartphone

 SK Telecom on Sunday unveiled its new budget smartphone, Sol, before its official launch Friday. Priced at 399,300 won ($330), the phone features a 5.5-inch full HD display, polycarbonate case and Qualcomm’s 1.5-gigahertz octacore processor. SKT

Jan. 17, 2016

[Weekender] Tech makeover puts new spin on the block

A few years ago, office worker Lee Yu-na had a nightmare finding parking space when visiting Bukchon Hanok Village, one of the popular tourist destinations in northern Seoul. Despite her unsavory memory of paying fines for parking her car in a no-parking area, she had to visit the village again last month, on request by her friend from the U.S. But this time she felt more confident. A smart parking lot management solution developed by smart parking app operator ParkingCloud is installed at the J

Jan. 15, 2016

Samsung’s SmartThings to enter Korea in Q1

SmartThings, a U.S. smart home start-up acquired by Samsung Electronics last August, will enter the Korean market in the first quarter of this year, company officials said Friday. The South Korean tech giant snapped up the fast-growing Internet of Things start-up in a $200 million deal under its vision to have all its appliances connected to the Web by 2020.SmartThings’ mobile app for the connected home.Samsung confirmed that it will roll out SmartThings products, including a smart hub and multi

Jan. 15, 2016

Naver’s Web novel platform gains steam

Marking its third anniversary Friday, Naver’s webfiction service has shown rapid growth, with the number of subscribers surpassing 5 million, up 53 percent from 2013, according to the Internet giant.The monthly sales of Web novels published on the platform also hit the 100-million won ($82,800) mark.  Naver’s Web novel platform. (Naver)Currently, 150 authors have rolled out 197 Web novels over the past three years. Ninety-seven writers published 117 literary works on the online platform last yea

Jan. 15, 2016

SK hynix to invest W6tr despite market uncertainty

Aiming to counter tumbling demand for chips due mainly to the saturated global smartphone and PC chip markets, SK hynix announced Thursday a plan to invest 6 trillion won ($4.95 billion) this year.The company will match last year’s investment to conduct research and development for new chip technology, acquire a competitive edge in price, and build new production lines, according to the firm. The logo of SK hynix is on a company office window. (Yonhap)Specifically, the company will speed up the

Jan. 14, 2016

Samsung starts production of next-generation chip

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it has started mass production of its own flagship mobile chip Exynos 8 Octa and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820, to be fitted on premium smartphone models, including the Galaxy S7. The chips are built on a new technology, called the 14-nanometer low-power plus process, the second generation of the firm’s 14-nm FinFET process technology first adopted by the Seoul-based firm last year to build the Exynos 7 Octa, the system-on-a-chip that powers the Galaxy S6. Sams

Jan. 14, 2016

[Photo News] LG releases world's lightest 15-inch laptop

LG RELEASES LIGHTEST 15-INCH LAPTOP -- LG Electronics rolled out the world’s lightest 15.6-inch laptop, dubbed the Gram 15, in Seoul on Thursday. The new laptop weighing in at 980 grams -- 50 percent lighter than the existing 15-inch products -- features either Intel‘s i5 or i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256 and 512GB storage options, with its price range from 1.55 million won ($1,280) to 2.29 million won.　(LGE)

Jan. 14, 2016

Samsung CEO apologizes to leukemia victims

Kwon Oh-hyun, the CEO and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, handed a written apology to family members of former workers who contracted deadly diseases including leukemia and various cancers, in Seoul on Thursday. Participating in a meeting with the families of the workers stricken with illnesses at the head office in Gangnam, Seoul on the day, CEO Kwon said “we appreciate your understanding and efforts to solve the issues (related to the dispute involving the former Samsung factory workers)

Jan. 14, 2016

LG releases lightest 15-inch laptop

 LG Electronics rolled out the world’s lightest 15.6-inch laptop, dubbed the Gram 15, in Seoul on Thursday. The new laptop weighing in at 980 grams -- 50 percent lighter than the existing 15-inch products -- features either an i5 or i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256 and 512GB storage options with its price range from 1.55 million won ($1,280) to 2.29 million won.　LGE

Jan. 14, 2016

Korea can surpass Israel’s start-up success: Yozma Korea chief

In the early 1990s, Israel’s flagging economy struggled to take on a population influx after the fall of the Soviet Union. With few resources to help pull the country out of the economic doldrums and high unemployment, the conflict-zone country turned to a new growth engine: technology.Powered by heavy government and foreign investment, Israel has now developed into a “start-up nation” with high-tech industries fueling economic growth since 2000 by building from scratch a healthy ecosystem that

Jan. 13, 2016

Twitter adopts autoplay function for live streams

The winds of change are blowing through Twitter as it continues its quest for more functionalities on its 10-year-old social network platform.The San Francisco-headquartered firm announced Wednesday that the autoplay function for video content of live-streaming social media network Periscope is now available on Twitter timelines. An image of a Twitter feed autoplaying a Periscope stream. (Twitter)“Both Twitter and Periscope show you what’s going on in the world, right now ― whether that’s outsid

Jan. 13, 2016