LG to quit solar panel business on rising costs

LG Electronics said Wednesday it is exiting its solar panel business, citing unfavorable market conditions such as rising costs and price competition as the key factors. The Korean tech giant, following a board meeting on Tuesday, said it would stop producing solar panels and modules by June 30, with some 900 employees being relocated to other business divisions, including those of other LG companies. LG started its solar panel business back in 2010 with an emphasis on higher-efficiency prem

Feb. 23, 2022

S. Korea joins top-tier group in democratic AI policy index

South Korea climbed to the first-tier group of countries last year in terms of how well its state policies for artificial intelligence are aligned with democratic values, a U.S. nongovernmental organization said Wednesday. In 2021, South Korea moved up by one notch to the first-tier group with 11 points, compared with 8.5 points the previous year, according to a report by the Center for AI and Digital Policy. Canada, Germany and Italy also stayed on the top tier last year. The Artificial Intelli

Feb. 23, 2022

Dunamu’s funding for startups tops W100b

Dunamu & Partners, the investment arm of Korea’s blockchain firm Dunamu, said Tuesday it has invested a combined 100.3 billion won ($83.9 million) in a total of 46 startups over the past three years. Dunamu said artificial intelligence and data startups make up almost half of the beneficiaries it has funded, while others in the fields of gaming, fintech, blockchain and digital healthcare are key recipients. Many of the startups showed strong performance in elevating corporate valu

Feb. 22, 2022

Local streamer Watcha to launch new platform with music, webtoons

Watcha, a homegrown over-the-top service, said Tuesday it plans to kick off a new platform that provides music and webtoon contents in addition to its current video streaming service. The latest move comes amid growing competition in the local video streaming market led by global streaming giant Netflix, followed by homegrown players Wavve and Tving. "Watcha will evolve from our current video streaming service provider into an integrated entertainment subscription service ... this will allo

Feb. 22, 2022

[MWC 2022] Korean telcos set sight on groundbreaking 5G network tech

The chiefs of all three major telecommunication firms in South Korea -- KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus -- are poised to attend the forthcoming tech event Mobile World Congress 2022 onsite in Barcelona, Spain, where next-generation network technologies are set to take center stage. At the MWC 2022, which runs from Feb. 28 to March 3, Korean telcos will showcase how they have shifted gears in their radio access network technology. This shift has enabled mobile handsets to be connected with a core n

Feb. 22, 2022

LG's OLED TV shipments double in 2021: report

LG Electronics Inc. shipped more than four million units of premium OLED TVs last year, double the volume from a year earlier, on steady demand for premium TVs, a report showed Tuesday. The South Korean consumer electronics giant shipped a total of 4.04 million OLED TVs last year, with record quarterly sales of more than 1.41 million units in the fourth quarter, market researcher Omdia said. Last year, the global OLED TV sector grew a whopping 80 percent on-year to hit sales of more than 6.5 mil

Feb. 22, 2022

SK chief assumes chairman role at SK Telecom

SK Group said Monday Chairman Chey Tae-won will assume the chairman title of its telecom unit SK Telecom to boost the group’s burgeoning artificial intelligence business. SK said the chairman will play a supporting role as he serves as an unregistered director on the board rather than participating in the daily operations directly. Chey has served as the chairman of SK Inc., the holding unit, as a board member, while taking the chairman post of SK Innovation, the chemicals and energy u

Feb. 21, 2022

Samsung faces shareholder call for more radical green push

Despite a series of actions and pledges to make its business more environmentally sustainable, Samsung is still facing calls for a more aggressive approach to reducing greenhouse gases from global institutional shareholders of the tech titan. The latest to do so was APG, a Dutch pension fund that oversees nearly 630 billion euros ($716 billion). On Thursday, APG revealed that Samsung Electronics was one of the 10 South Korea-based investees to which it has sent a letter urging a greater effort

Feb. 18, 2022

Biometric technology halves payment costs, Boston Consulting says

Alert credit card companies in Korea. Biometric technology using facial, iris, voice, fingerprint and finger vein recognition could halve the current money transfer costs through credit card and mobile transactions totaling at 2.7 trillion won ($2.2 billion) annually, Boston Consulting Group said Friday in a report. “The 2.7 trillion won is an approximation of the sum of 290 million hours and 110.7 million square meters, time and space annually needed to process payments in the convention

Feb. 18, 2022

KT to pay $6.3m to US SEC to settle corrupt practice charges

KT, South Korea’s largest telecommunications firm by sales, will pay a total of $6.3 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an SEC announcement showed Friday. The SEC ordered the Seoul-based firm to pay $3.5 million in civil payments and $2.8 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest within a month, more than two years after the US authorities started their investigation. KT was accused of insuffici

Feb. 18, 2022

Lippert’s expertise to boost Samsung’s US strategy

Samsung Electronics America said Wednesday it has hired former US Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert as its public relations chief, in an apparent move to better respond to uncertainties surrounding policy changes in the US, especially on chips. The former envoy will lead the company’s Washington office as executive vice president and head of North American public affairs from March 1. Samsung said Lippert’s insight into policy changes and regulations in the US will play a key

Feb. 17, 2022

Samsung woos wine lovers with new Bespoke refrigerators, IoT features

Samsung Electronics said Thursday a wine cooler will be part of its new home appliance package under its Bespoke brand to target wine lovers in South Korea, coupled with its Internet of Things features for wine pairing recommendation. Its new premium built-in side-by-side refrigerator, under its brand-new Bespoke Infinite lineup, has a dual-zone vertical wine cooler that can hold up to 101 bottles of wine. The temperature for each zone can be set at between 4-18 degrees Celsius, enabling user

Feb. 17, 2022

Samsung SDS joins AWS’ exclusive global network

South Korean IT solutions provider Samsung SDS said Thursday it has signed a new partnership with cloud giant Amazon Web Services to bolster bilateral ties and strengthen their corporate cloud business. Under the renewed partnership, Samsung SDS is also joining AWS’ “exclusive” global business network, along with other global partners like Verizon and NEC. The two firms have already carried out diverse corporate projects since January last year, in which they support business

Feb. 17, 2022

ICT minister calls for telcos' cooperation on dispute over additional 5G frequencies

Science and ICT Minister Lim Hye-sook on Thursday met with the heads of three major South Korean telecom operators to discuss a dispute over additional 5G network frequency bands and urged cooperation in providing better network service to consumers. In December, the ministry agreed to open bidding for additional 5G networks in the 3.4- to 3.42-gigahertz spectrum, as requested by LG Uplus, the smallest mobile carrier. Lim earlier hinted at a possible delay in the auction -- initially planned for

Feb. 17, 2022

Korean chip industry to invest W56.7tr this year: lobby group

The South Korean semiconductor chip industry is poised to invest 56.7 trillion won ($47.4 billion) in 2022 to create jobs and strengthen a supply chain amid talent shortages and external uncertainties, according to a lobby group Wednesday. The figure for some 150 companies across the Korean chip supply chain is 10 percent higher than the domestic industry’s total spending in 2021 at 51.6 trillion won, according to the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association. The lobby group is currently

Feb. 16, 2022

Samsung unveils board reshuffle plan

Samsung Electronics unveiled Tuesday a plan to add six new board members and put them to the vote at an upcoming shareholder meeting in March. With the move, Samsung is likely to place more emphasis on its memory chip operations and sustainability in its business, which includes smartphones, consumer electronics goods and semiconductor chips. Among the incoming inside board member nominees is Samsung Electronics CEO Kyung Kye-hyun, who oversees its Device Solutions Division dedicated to semic

Feb. 15, 2022

LG's AI fashion designer Tilda debuts in New York

LG Group’s virtual fashion designer powered by the hyperscale artificial intelligence has debuted at New York Fashion Week, bringing the engine’s text-to-image generation capability to new heights, its holding company LG Corp. said Tuesday.  The virtual fashion designer, named Tilda, has collaborated with Park Youn-hee, a South Korea-born fashion designer behind the Greedilous brand. The collection was unveiled during a Fall 2022 runway show Monday held at Spring Studios, a po

Feb. 15, 2022

Samsung, LG among top 5 international patent filers

South Korea’s tech giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were among the five largest patent cooperation treaty (PCT) filers worldwide, the Korean Intellectual Property Office said Monday. A PCT is a global filing service that protects inventions, allowing applicants to seek international protection for an intellectual property simultaneously in over 150 countries with a single filing. Under the mechanism devised by World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations agency

Feb. 14, 2022

Top talents in Korean chipmakers offered later retirement

Engineers at South Korea’s semiconductor chipmakers are increasingly being offered the chance to put off retirement to a later date. This comes as the memory chip powerhouse, home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, experiences a talent shortage in the industry. The move will likely be welcome news to the government, which is struggling to find ways to deal with the economic impact of the country’s rapid demographic shift toward an aging population. Starting this year, Sa

Feb. 13, 2022

ICT ministry to invest W130b in data projects this year

South Korea's ICT ministry said Sunday it plans to spend 129.8 billion won ($108.2 million) on ramping up data projects this year, including distributing "data vouchers" to support small and medium-sized businesses. The latest investment comes as part of efforts to utilize data collected from the so-called Data Dam project, an initiative that kicked off in 2020 to gather data generated through public and private networks to maximize data utilization. The ministry said it will allocate

Feb. 13, 2022