Smilegate’s Lost Ark rewrites rules of online PC game market

Lost Ark, developed by Smilegate, has emerged as the most popular title in the role-playing PC game category in South Korea, a surprising performance given its rise to the top slot took some time and benefited from a host of external factors. The multiplayer game was launched in November 2018. As with other mainstream games, it pulled off a stellar record when it formally kicked off its service, drawing a record 350,000 concurrent users. Over time, its popularity declined as fickle players mi

Aug. 17, 2021

S. Korean firms’ donations to Vietnam vaccine fund surpass W9b

South Korean companies operating in Vietnam have provided a total of 9.2 billion won ($7.8 million or 180 billion dong), in donations to help the Southeast Asian country secure COVID-19 vaccines, according to officials in the South Korean Embassy in Vietnam and local media reports Tuesday. If donations from South Korean individuals are counted, the combined contribution to Vietnam’s vaccine fund could surpass 10 billion won, they said. Forking out the biggest amount was Samsung Electro

Aug. 17, 2021

Compliance, chips and vaccine ‘top priority‘ for Samsung’s Lee

Samsung Group’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong is going full speed ahead after returning to the office Tuesday, tending to tasks waiting for his attention at Samsung Electronics. On Tuesday, the first working day since his release from jail Friday, the Samsung vice chairman reported to his office at Samsung’s headquarters in Seocho, southern Seoul, early in the morning. Of all the items on his agenda, three appear to be of top priority: compliance, chips and vaccine. It was uncl

Aug. 17, 2021

[Herald Interview] Yanolja envisions self-check-in hotels with app-controlled rooms

When travel and leisure platform operator Yanolja raised $1.7 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 last month, it drew comparisons with e-commerce giant Coupang, drumming up excitement over the recent startup boom in South Korea. “We have the super app Yanolja at home and a cloud-based automation solution for the international market. They are fast-growing markets with great potential and we believe the funding acknowledges our technology to keep things going and our great team,” Lee

Aug. 17, 2021

Hyundai Construction Equipment to develop small-sized forklifts

South Korean construction machinery maker Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. on Tuesday said it will develop small-sized forklifts to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The subsidiary of Hyundai Genuine Co. will team up with S-Fuelcell Co., a local hydrogen fuel cell maker, to commercialize the 1-3 ton forklifts by 2023, it said. Hyundai Construction Equipment also said it developed 5-ton hydrogen fuel cell powered forklifts in 2020 in cooperation with Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's biggest

Aug. 17, 2021

LG Display to invest W3.3 tr to expand OLED capacity

LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, said Tuesday it will invest 3.3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) to expand its medium-and-small sized OLED display production capacity. The company said the investment, which will be made through March 2024, will be used in OLED facilities in South Korea that manufacture sixth-generation (1,500mm x 1,850mm) substrates. LG Display is the world's sole supplier of large-size OLED panels for TVs, but its competitiveness in the medium-and-

Aug. 17, 2021

Samsung leads Q2 curved monitor market

Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's largest curved monitor vendor in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Tuesday, although its shipments decreased sharply from a quarter earlier. Samsung had a market share of 32 percent in the April-June period after shipping 1.09 million curved monitors, according to market researcher TrendForce. AOC/Philips, owned by TPV Technology Ltd., was the runner-up with a 12 percent market share with 410,000 units. Micro-Star International Co. and Dell

Aug. 17, 2021

Samsung Display's low-power OLED panels inside latest foldable phone

Samsung Display’s new power-saving OLED display panels can be found inside Samsung Electronics’ latest smartphone, the Galaxy Z Fold3, according to the display maker on Monday. The new displays, developed with what the company brands as Eco2 OLED technology, cut power consumption by up to 25 percent, it added. The firm has made a number of efforts to debut low-power OLED panels, with a focus on polarizers. Polarizers are key components in a panel that eliminate reflections from e

Aug. 16, 2021

[Gadget Review] Samsung foldables deserve credit for upgrades

Samsung Electronics’ two latest foldable smartphones, Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3, didn’t seem to have the “wow” factor when first unveiled, but at a closer look, they do deserve some praise. As a user of Z Flip, with a husband who also owns the Galaxy Z Fold, I personally had expectations for new editions of the foldable devices, hoping they would be “more comfortable” to use in daily life. As I had hoped, Galaxy Z Fold3 became slightly thinner and lighte

Aug. 16, 2021

Kakao opens blockchain units in Singapore, eyes expansion overseas

Kakao Group, which operates messenger app KakaoTalk, has established two new blockchain entities in Singapore in an effort to expand its blockchain platform abroad and chase after its biggest competitor, Naver. According to local media reports Monday, Kakao recently founded the nonprofit Klaytn Foundation and global accelerator unit Krust in the city-state. With the two at the forefront, the South Korean internet giant will pursue the globalization of its public blockchain project, Klaytn,

Aug. 16, 2021

[Anniversary Special] S. Korea’s pharmaceutical industry grows through COVID-19, prepares for post-pandemic future

The pandemic has opened up a window of opportunity for South Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies to advance to the global stage. Several local players posted strong earnings by exporting self-developed test kits to foreign countries and secured contract manufacturing deals for COVID-19 vaccines. As a result, the number of pharmaceutical and biotech firms with sales exceeding 1 trillion won ($860.2 million) has increased to nine in 2020 from six a year earlier. Contract development

Aug. 14, 2021

Samsung SDI may build an EV battery plant in Illinois : news reports

Samsung SDI may build a battery plant in central Illinois, according to a report by Reuters on Friday. The news came after Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said in a press conference that there were discussions to bring in a “major Samsung battery facility” during their meeting with South Korean delegations this week. While the decision has not been finalized, said Durbin, the facility will possibly be next to electric-vehicle start-up Rivian, which said in April it would source EV batt

Aug. 13, 2021

Celltrion's Q2 operating profit falls 10.2% on-year

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion on Friday said the company’s operating profit fell 10.2 percent in the second quarter through an earnings report. The firm’s operating profit stood at 163.2 billion won during the April-June period, down 10.2 percent from the same period last year. Its sales inched up 0.7 percent to 431.8 billion won. The company said its second-quarter revenue went slightly up, backed by increased overseas sales of the company’s infliximab bios

Aug. 13, 2021

S. Korea signs contract with Pfizer to buy 30m COVID-19 vaccine doses

South Korea has signed a contract with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to purchase 30 million doses of the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in 2022, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday. The deal is part of Seoul’s plan to procure 50 million vaccine booster shots for the country’s population of 52 million, according to KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyeong. Pfizer’s first batch will ship out in the first quarter of next year, the KDCA added. Under t

Aug. 13, 2021

Samsung Bioepis sees 30% jump in biosimilar sales in H1

South Korean drugmaker Samsung Bioepis said Friday that global sales of five major biosimilar products increased 30 percent on-year in the first half of this year. Sales of the five biosimilar products during the first half reached $166 million, from $128 million from the same period a year earlier, according to an earnings report of its global pharmaceutical partner Organon International, a spinoff of US-based Merck. The five products are etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, trastuzumab and

Aug. 13, 2021

[From the Scene] Hundreds gather to watch Lee leave jail

UIWANG, Gyeonggi Province -- Lee Jae-yong, de facto leader of South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Electronics, has been released on parole Friday. At 10 a.m. on Friday, Lee walked free from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province after being jailed for bribery. Around 300 citizens and global media thronged the area in the hours before Lee’s release. In front of the detention center’s gate, members of conservative civic groups held up placards and ba

Aug. 13, 2021

Celltrion’s COVID-19 treatment wins emergency use authorization in Brazil

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Thursday that the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment has won an emergency approval from the Brazilian government. According to Celltrion, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency gave emergency use authorization to the company’s COVID-19 treatment Regkirona, or CT-P59. The approval was based on results from all three phases of the clinical study of COVID-19 treatment Rekirona, as well as preclinical studies that suggest the effic

Aug. 12, 2021

GC Pharma reports positive clinical trial results of immunoglobulin product

GC Pharma on Thursday reported positive top-line results from the phase 3 clinical trial of its immunoglobulin product GC5107. The clinical study results have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Immunology, the company said. The phase 3 study was conducted on 49 patients who were diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency. The patients aged between 3-70 received infusions of GC5107 doses every 21 or 28 days for 12 months at 17 medical institutions in the US and Canada. Th

Aug. 12, 2021

ICT exports reach fresh high in July

South Korea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products hit a record high in July, data showed Wednesday, rising for the 14th consecutive month thanks to global demand for chips and displays. Outbound shipments of ICT products stood at $19.5 billion last month, up 30.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The figure marks a fresh high for July after reaching $18.5 billion in 2018. Imports reached $11.32 billion last mon

Aug. 12, 2021

Samsung Electro-Mechanics develops 2 MLCCs for self-driving vehicles

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a component supplier of Samsung Electronics, said Thursday it has developed two key multi-layer ceramic capacitors for autonomous driving systems. One is the smaller than any MLCCs currently available for advanced driver assist systems, or ADAS, measuring 0.6 millimeters in length and 0.3 mm across, the firm said. The other boasts storage of 47 microfarads. The company expects the new products to be widely used for self-driving cars in the foreseeable future. T

Aug. 12, 2021