Netflix's mobile active users top 10m in Feb.: data

Active users of video streaming apps by Netflix Inc. on their mobile devices topped 10 million in South Korea last month, more than doubling from the start of last year, data showed Monday. The video streaming platform recorded 10.01 million Android and iOS users in the country in February, compared with 4.7 million in January last year, according to mobile data tracker IGAWorks. Monthly active users refer to unique users who interacted with a service at least once a month. Netflix was the mo

March 15, 2021

LG tops best home appliance lists in US

South Korea’s LG Electronics has grabbed the top spots in home appliance rankings by US-based nonprofit organization Consumer Reports. LG’s organic light-emitting diode TV model 65CX scored 87 and was ranked the best TV among 227 products in the US organization’s latest rankings report for 2021. For LG, it reclaimed its position at the top of the TV list in two years. Of the top 10 TV models, seven were by LG, suggesting a consumer preference for the Korean-made TVs. Th

March 14, 2021

Samsung Brush chairman donates W20bn worth real estate for KAIST

 Jang Seong-hwan, 92-year-old South Korean businessman, and his wife decided to donate a real estate worth 20 billion won to the Korea Advanced Institute of Technology, the institution said Sunday. KAIST held a ceremony to mark Jang’s donation at a hotel in Seoul on Saturday, it said. The donation includes a six-floor building with two basement floors on a landmass of 580 square meters in Nonhyun-dong, southern Seoul. Jang is a son of a North Korean family, who crossed the borde

March 14, 2021

Samsung affiliates to start full-scale recruitment this week

Samsung Electronics and its affiliates are set to announce an open recruitment of college graduates and soon-to-be graduates this week, maintaining a large-scale hiring of entry-level workers amid the pandemic in South Korea. According to industry sources on Sunday, Samsung Electronics and three other affiliates – Samsung Display, Samsung SDI and Samsung Electro-Mechanics – will release their recruitment announcements soon. Some of the affiliates are holding online job fairs am

March 14, 2021

Hanmi's lung cancer treatment receives fast track designation from US FDA

Hanmi Pharmaceutical said Friday that its non-small cell lung cancer treatment Poziotinib has received the fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration. Hanmi added that its US partner Spectrum Pharmaceuticals would submit the new drug application to the FDA by the end of this year. Fast track designation from the US FDA is one of the measures designed to support development and expedite the review of drugs that show promise in treating serious and address unmet medical ne

March 12, 2021

SK hynix receives approval from US foreign investment watchdog

SK hynix, South Korea‘s second-largest chipmaker, announced Friday that the company has received approval from the US foreign investment watchdog for acquiring Intel’s NAND business. Upon the approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, SK hynix said it has completed all foreign investment screening procedures the US requires. Earlier, the company had obtained the approval of the US Federal Trade Commission, late last year. SK hynix said the company wo

March 12, 2021

Samsung to launch Galaxy A32 smartphone in S. Korea this week

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it will launch another budget smartphone model in South Korea this week as the global tech giant eyes beefing up its handset sales against rivals. The Galaxy A32 will be released in South Korea on Friday with a price tag of 374,000 won ($330). The budget smartphone is already available in select markets in Europe and India. The LTE-supporting model comes with a quad rear-camera setup with a 60-megapixel (MP) main shooter, 8MP ultra wide lens, 52MP depth sen

March 11, 2021

Legal risks mount for Samsung’s jailed chief

The trial of Samsung Group’s de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, resumed Thursday, increasing legal risks for the country’s biggest conglomerate as the court examines his role in the 2015 merger of two business units within the group. The Seoul Central Court held a second session to set a preliminary date for the trial of 12 Samsung executives, including the imprisoned Samsung Electronics vice chairman, who is the only son of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The session was

March 11, 2021

SK Bioscience to develop vaccine for COVID-19 variants

SK Bioscience will develop an all-in-one vaccine targeting COVID-19 variants, together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the South Korean firm said Thursday. SK Bioscience would receive funding from CEPI, worth up to $14.2 million, for the research and development. The South Korean vaccine developer could receive additional funds of as much as $12.5 million for building manufacturing facilities. For the new vaccine, the company hopes to build on its experience with n

March 11, 2021

KAIST finds new treatment for dystonia

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s research team has discovered a new way of treating the movement disorder dystonia, it announced Wednesday. Patients with dystonia suffer from involuntary muscle spasms or contractions, resulting in repetitive movements and abnormal body posture. Led by Professor Kim Dae-so, the research team has found that volinanserin, or MDL100907, has the potential to treat dystonia as an antagonist to 5-HT2AR, a serotonin receptor. According

March 11, 2021

Facebook launches Instagram Lite in 170 lower bandwidth countries

Facebook said onWednesday it was launching a "lite" version of Instagram in 170 countries that will enable people with poor internet to access the photo and video sharing social networking service. Instagram Lite will be available for Android-based phonesand require less bandwidth than the traditional version.The app itself requires just 2 megabytes (MB) -- versus 30 MB for Instagram -- and runs even on slower 2G networks, allowing customers in parts of India, Africa, Asia and Latin

March 10, 2021

Samsung to hold first Unpacked event for midrange phones

Samsung Electronics is preparing for another event to unveil some of its newest Galaxy devices next week as a likely move to garner attention for products other than its flagship S series. The tech giant has sent out invitations to a new unveiling event for its Galaxy devices, “Galaxy Awesome Unpacked.” The event is a new addition this year to Samsung’s existing Galaxy Unpacked events, which are usually held twice a year to announce flagship phones. The invitation said

March 10, 2021

Samsung launches first DRAM-less SSD

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that the company will roll out the first consumer drive without DRAM -- the 980 Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) SSD, which delivers the highest performance among DRAM-less SSDs at a faster speed. Previously, DRAM-less designs had a disadvantage in speed as they lacked the short-term memory for fast access to data. To address the issue and overcome any performance drawbacks, Samsung used the Host Memory Buffer technology, which links the drive directly

March 10, 2021

Samsung aims to boost Bespoke sales to 80% in Korea, expand overseas

Samsung Electronics has an aim to boost its sales of customizable Bespoke products to 80 percent of total consumer electronics sales, the company’s president said Tuesday. During an online press conference held to announce the new Bespoke Home products, Lee Jae-seung, president of Samsung’s consumer electronics business, said the company will expand the Bespoke lineup further both at home and abroad. “The company aims to expand the Bespoke sales to account for 80 percent of

March 9, 2021

Daewoong’s migraine treatment to enter phase two trial in US

Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s partner company in the US is to begin a phase two study of using botulinum toxin complex injections as a preventive treatment for migraines, according to the South Korean firm Tuesday. AEON Biopharma, a California-based private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has licensed the ABP-450 injection from Daewoong Pharmaceutical and has exclusive development and distribution rights for ABP-450 in the US, Canada and the European countries. Last year, the US

March 9, 2021

Samsung dominates 2020 foldable smartphone market: report

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone vendor, was the dominant player in the global foldable smartphone market last year, a report showed Tuesday, with its leading status expected to continue through 2021. For the whole of 2020, Samsung logged an 87 percent share on a unit basis in the global foldable smartphone market that was estimated at 2.2 million units, according to market tracker Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC). "The Z Flip was the No. 1 model with nearl

March 9, 2021

Samsung to reclaim No. 1 spot in Q1 smartphone production: report

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to recapture the top spot in global smartphone production in the first quarter of the year, a report showed Tuesday, with the release of its new flagship smartphone. The South Korean tech giant is estimated to produce 62 million smartphones in the January-March period and account for 18.1 percent of global smartphone production, according to market researcher TrendForce. "Moving to the first quarter of 2021, Samsung has released the new lineup of its

March 9, 2021

Celltrion to soon start overseas clinical study for novel heart disease medicine

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion is preparing to launch an overseas clinical trial for a new medicine for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, according to industry sources Monday. Celltrion is currently recruiting participants in Poland for its phase 1 clinical trial for CT-G20, the South Korean biopharmaceutical company’s first-ever chemical drug for HCM, a heart disease for which there is currently no known cure. The firm plans to submit an investigational new drug application t

March 8, 2021

LG Innotek partners with Microsoft on 3D-sensing camera

LG Innotek said Monday the company has inked a deal with Microsoft to increase its share in the 3D-sensing module market. The South Korean electronic parts supplier signed a memorandum of understanding with the US-based tech mogul to cooperate on the development of ToF modules for Microsoft’s Azure Cloud service. The ToF -- time of flight -- module is a core component of 3D-sensing cameras which perceives three-dimensionality, spatial information and movement of an object by measuring

March 8, 2021

[News Focus] No signs of settlement between Korea’s warring battery makers

Nearly a month has passed since the US trade court delivered a victory to LG Energy Solution in its trade secret dispute with crosstown rival SK Innovation, but the two sides appear no closer to ending their bitter war. Quite the contrary. The fight between the world’s two leading battery producers for electric vehicles has now spilled over to the White House, much to the dismay of Seoul officials, who hope for an early resolution to the matter, saying this would help Korea maintain its l

March 7, 2021