[Herald Interview] TriBeluga to support Korean tech start-ups

TriBeluga, a Chinese start-up incubation center, said it will “spare no effort” in supporting South Korean tech start-ups seeking to make inroads into China’s environment, health care and education sectors. Lili Luo, president and founder of TriBeluga, said the incubator will not only provide seed money to early-stage innovative start-ups, but also help them grow via initial public offerings or mergers and acquisitions, two key factors that determine the success and sustainability of start-ups.“

Oct. 16, 2014

SME innovation to help cut home energy use

The following is the fourth in a series of articles on the creative green economy, which focuses on generating new growth engines and was initiated by the Park Geun-hye administration and the Ministry of Environment. ― Ed.Saving energy to sustain the environment is not an easy task.People will have to break old habits or thinking, and adapt to a new lifestyle as a start.But with the right tools and appliances, they can learn to efficiently manage energy at home or office, which would start a pos

Oct. 15, 2014

Rifkin urges Korea’s shift to renewable energy

Jeremy Rifkin, an internationally renowned economist and author, advised Korea to shift its gears to embrace renewable energy sources to better prepare for the era of the so-called “sharing economy.”The sharing economy indicates a new paradigm under which people share a number of goods and services, including cars, homes and clothes, with one another via such new channels as social media sites, at low cost or even free of charge. “Nuclear power (generation) is a mistaken business because of its

Oct. 15, 2014

Cisco aims to create IoT ecosystem

CHICAGO ― Aiming to take the lead in the era of the Internet of Things, Cisco, a global networking giant, announced new plans on Tuesday to develop the smart technology ecosystem.The steering committee of the Internet of Things World Forum, an annual conference held by Cisco from Tuesday to Thursday in Chicago, unveiled a new IoT Reference Model that is expected to serve as a common framework to help industries accelerate IoT deployments. The reference model consists of seven parts including edu

Oct. 15, 2014

Chicago aims for ‘smartest city’ title

CHICAGO ― Steve Koch, the deputy mayor of Chicago, said the city would make all-out efforts to transform itself into the smartest city in the U.S. and even in the world by embracing cutting-edge Internet of Things technology. “We (Chicago) want to be the center of the industry, where people start companies, where people create jobs and where people create value,” said the deputy mayor in a keynote speech at the Internet of Things World Forum Tuesday.“We want to be the test bed of new technology.

Oct. 15, 2014

[Herald Interview] Blind offers platform for frank communication

Blind, an anonymous mobile message board developed by startup Team Blind, is quickly changing the way communication takes place in corporate offices.First launched in 2013 as an exclusive service for employees of Korean Internet giant Naver, Blind message boards are made upon the request of employees of the same company or of the same industry sector.Since the message board is accessible only to those from the same firm or same industry, the subjects discussed on the board are mostly linked to t

Oct. 15, 2014

NCsoft opens job positions

NCsoft, a leading Seoul-based online and mobile game developer, said Monday that it had launched an annual hiring drive for college graduates. Positions are open in 12 fields including online and mobile game development, platform and artificial intelligence technology development, game and technology project management, service planning, user-experience designs, game marketing and security planning. Those interested in applying can download an application form from the company’s website until Oc

Oct. 15, 2014

Kakao’s defiant stance stirs up controversy

KakaoTalk, South Korea’s most-used messenger app, has once again become the center of national attention, stirring up controversy over its announcement that it would not accede to laws allowing authorities to inspect its user data.The issue over the platform’s privacy policy has split the nation, with some people posting online comments that its new security measures have been long overdue, while others accused it of arrogance and believing that it can operate above the law.The legal community,

Oct. 14, 2014

[Newsmaker] Homeplus faces torrid Assembly audit

Homeplus, one of South Korea’s largest grocery chains, will have to explain during a parliamentary inspection what seems like an intentional leakage of its customers’ private information to third parties.Its alleged wrongdoings come at a time when public criticism is growing against the country’s weak security protection systems, following a series of information theft, leaks and monitoring.Homeplus executives, including chief executive Do Sung-hwan, as well as its multinational owner U.K.-based

Oct. 13, 2014

[Graphic News] 1 in 4 Korean boys suffers from obesity

One in four South Korean male children aged 5 to 17 are obese, a rate that is higher than the OECD average, according to the nation’s Health Ministry.According to the ministry, 25 percent of young male Koreans are obese, compared to the OECD average of 23 percent.The ministry announced the statistics using Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development data from no earlier than 2010. “Some 60 percent of obese children end up becoming obese as adults as well,” said the Health Ministry in a

Oct. 12, 2014

Samsung produces world’s first 3-bit vertical NAND chip

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it has begun mass production of three-bit vertical NAND flash memory chips for the first time in the world to offer chips with improved data storage efficiency.The world’s largest chipmaker in August unveiled the chip, called triple level cell, which stores three bits of data in each cell. Until recently, the three-bit technology has been applied only to planar NAND flash products.The newly developed three-bit V-NAND has 32 layers of laminated cells, and the

Oct. 9, 2014