How Samsung, Hyundai tackle the China dilemma

Amid the escalating US-China rivalry in recent years, South Korea’s conglomerates have struggled to strike a balance in their Chinese business. Even though no immediate breakthrough is seen in geopolitical tensions, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group -- the nation’s top makers of smartphones and cars -- are seeking a turnaround in their reduced market shares in China, an all-important market that is too big to ditch. Samsung In its earnings guidance last week, Samsung pred

April 12, 2023

LG unveils younger, dynamic brand identity

LG Electronics introduced a new brand identity highlighting the value of its slogan “Life’s Good” to actively communicate with customers beyond generations and locations, the South Korean consumer appliance giant said Wednesday. The conglomerate shared its new brand communication guidelines with its employees all around the world, outlining a new direction for the brand for a younger and dynamic image, and ultimately, to establish itself as an iconic brand. “Having a stro

April 12, 2023

Netmarble, The Sandbox sign metaverse partnership

South Korean game maker Netmarble and global metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox have signed a strategic partnership to enhance gaming content and provide various experiences to players, officials said Wednesday. According to the announcement, The Sandbox will set up a Netmarble intellectual property space within the K-Verse -- a specialized space dedicated to Korean culture and entertainment in the virtual world -- to offer players a chance to immerse themselves in Netmarble’s popular c

April 12, 2023

Nuri rocket’s 3rd launch set for May 24

The third launch of Nuri, the Korean homegrown space launch vehicle, has been set to take place on May 24, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the Nuri rocket, also known as the Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle II, will blast off from the launch pad at 6:24 p.m. at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. The preliminary launch period will be from May 25 to 31. The ministry said that the Nuri rocket had completed the process of assembling the f

April 11, 2023

Samsung Display to supply OLED panels for Ferrari cars

Samsung Display, the display arm of Samsung Electronics, has clinched a deal to supply organic light emitting diode panels for Ferrari’s next generation automobiles, the company said on Tuesday. Samsung Display CEO Choi Joo-sun and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna agreed for the Korean display maker to supply the OLED panels and support the luxury automaker’s latest effort for digital transformation, the company said. “Based on our extensive expertise in OLED technology, we are po

April 11, 2023

LG CNS, Microsoft bolster ties in AI, cloud tech

South Korean IT solutions provider LG CNS said Tuesday it is bolstering ties with US tech behemoth Microsoft to accelerate collaborations in artificial intelligence, the cloud-based digital transformation, known as DX for short, and other joint projects. According to the company, CEO Hyun Shin-gyoon met with Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff at the US company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, last Thursday (local time) to attend a high-leve

April 11, 2023

[Photo News] LG at Milan Design Week

LG Electronics’ Objet Collection OLED TV, in collaboration with the Dutch luxury furniture and interior brand Moooi, is displayed at Milan Design Week 2023, the world’s largest design fair that kicks off in the northern Italy city next week.

April 10, 2023

[KH Explains] Apple ups ante in Samsung's home ground

US tech behemoth Apple has long maintained a low profile in South Korea, the home of its archrival Samsung Electronics, where the iPhone maker takes up a “modest” share of the market at about 20 percent. More recently, the US company seems to be upping the ante here, possibly pinning its hopes on Generation Z -- those born between 1997 and 2012 -- almost half of whom are believed to be iPhone users. According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup Korea, about 52 percent of people

April 10, 2023

S. Korea, UK work together on nuclear power, clean energy

South Korea and Britain agreed to strengthen cooperation on nuclear power and clean energy, releasing a joint declaration Monday. South Korean Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang met with British Minister of Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Grant Shapps in Seoul and agreed to work together to secure energy security and handle climate change, the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. Exchanging their thoughts on the importance of energy transition, the two ministers issued a

April 10, 2023

LG Electronics CEO travels to Southeast Asia to further market dominance

LG Electronics Chief Executive Officer Cho Joo-wan traveled to Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand last week to inspect the company's key production facilities in Asia, the Korean consumer appliances giant said on Sunday. On the three-day tour, Cho met with the heads of the company's regional corporations and discussed ways to boost competitiveness and further dominance in the global market, LG said. The CEO also inspected the key plants that produce automotive parts, home appliances and T

April 9, 2023

LG Electronics estimates to log second-highest Q1 profit of W1.5tr

LG Electronics said Friday it predicted its first-quarter operating earnings at 1.5 trillion won ($1.14 billion), which will likely be the company’s second-highest profit for the January-March period, outpacing Samsung Electronics' financial result for the first time in more than a decade. In its earnings guidance, the consumer electronics giant estimated its January-March operating profit will likely fall 23 percent from a year ago. The operating income exceeded the local analyst con

April 7, 2023

Samsung Electronics cuts chip production as Q1 profit likely to hit 14-year low

Samsung Electronics said Friday it was cutting its chip production to a “meaningful level” after reporting a worse-than-expected 96 percent plunge in its quarterly operating profit estimate amid the global chip downturn. “We’re adjusting to a lower memory production at a meaningful level centering on products that have secured enough inventory to respond to future demand, in addition to optimizing line operations that are already underway,” the company said in a sta

April 7, 2023

LG’s top brass joins forces to garner support for Busan’s Expo bid

As South Korean business leaders play a key role in attracting support for Busan’s bid to host the World Expo 2030, LG Group’s top executives traveled around the world to win votes. In October last year, Chairman Koo Kwang-mo visited Poland to meet with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, requesting the country’s support for Busan’s Expo bid. “Busan is South Korea’s second largest city, and it is also where LG first started its business. Busan is also wh

April 6, 2023

World Expo to evolve into global solutions platform in Busan

South Korea's bid to host the World Expo in Busan envisions the event morphing into a global platform providing solutions for the pressing challenges faced by the post-pandemic world. Under the theme of “Transforming Our World, Navigating Toward a Better Future," Busan aims to lead the global fair to take a great leap forward to become a venue of discussions needed for radical transformation like climate change, polarization and digitization. In the past, Expo themes were typical

April 6, 2023

Global Business Forum seeks ways to live with advanced AI

In an age of advanced artificial intelligence, experts suggested ways to effectively use the high-level technology at the Global Business Forum hosted by The Korea Herald on Wednesday. “With the ChatGPT boom, we need to think about how to wisely use AI and seek happiness in our lives,” said Chang Dong-seon, CEO of Curious Brain Lab, during the during the seventh session of the forum held at the Ambassador Seoul hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. For instance, people seem to consider techno

April 6, 2023

W160tr pledged to secure ‘super gap’ technologies

South Korea will invest 160 trillion won ($121 billion) to secure core technologies in the country’s three major sectors -- semiconductor, display and battery -- through 2027, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. “The semiconductor, display and next-generation battery sectors are the supporting technologies that have stably backed up our economy based on the super capabilities of the private sector,” said Science Minister Lee Jong-ho. According to the government&rsquo

April 6, 2023

[Photo News] Samsung's big bet on display

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (center), Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (third from left) and other government and company officials pose for a photo at Samsung Display’s Asan Campus in Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday in celebration of the tech giant’s new 4.1 trillion won ($3.1 billion) investment into upgrading production lines of high-end display panels by 2026. Samsung said its planned investment could help facilitate related industrial ecosystems as well as the loc

April 5, 2023

US hinders S. Korea’s nuclear plant export to Czech Republic

The US government has turned down Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s report on bidding for a nuclear power plant project in the Czech Republic, raising concerns that the Korean export plans of reactors may fall short due to ongoing litigation with Westinghouse Electric Co. The documents, which were submitted to the US District Court in Washington, showed Wednesday that KHNP submitted the relevant paperwork to the Department of Energy in December in compliance with the US Code of Federal Reg

April 5, 2023

Busan's historic trade port to turn into BIE big data hub

South Korea has proposed turning its first trade port in Busan, the North Port, into a big data center storing the history and legacy of Bureau International des Expositions, if it succeeds in its bid to host the World Expo in Busan in 2030. The Busan Expo bidding committee made the proposal to the BIE delegation while it was here for on a six-day inspection trip, which began Sunday. The next World Expo will take place in 2030, the year the BIE marking its 100th anniversary. Bidding to host the

April 5, 2023

Users can now decline KakaoTalk group chat invites from non-friends

KakaoTalk, South Korea’s ubiquitous mobile messenger app, has finally let users decline unwanted group chat invites from people outside of their friend list, a much-anticipated move for those who have experienced stress or discomfort over exiting group chats. However, if the inviter is on a user's KakaoTalk friends list, the user will be automatically added into the group chat. The new feature, which was added as part of a KakaoTalk system update last week to version 10.1.5, requires

April 4, 2023