Dabang launches non-contact real estate contract service

South Korean mobile realtor app operator Dabang said Thursday it has unveiled a contact-free signing service for real estate contracts, accelerating innovation in the country’s property technology industry. According to the property technology company, the mobile signing service, Dabang Sign, offers users the ability to sign real estate contracts via Dabang’s app. If landlords request to register their houses or apartments with Dabang Sign, the company’s inspection team chec

Dec. 16, 2021

SK Inc. invests $50m in US waste-to-fuels company Fulcrum

SK Inc. said Thursday it has joined in on a $50 million investment into Fulcrum BioEnergy, a US-based firm that turns household waste into low-carbon transportation fuels including those for airplanes. According to the holdings company of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, the investment will allow SK Inc. to make a foray into the Korean bioenergy market. SK Inc. is jointly investing in Fulcrum with a Korean private equity fund and did not disclose the exact amount it h

Dec. 16, 2021

Who gets the blame for iPhone 13 call malfunction?

Concerns reignited among iPhone 13 users subscribed to telecoms service provider LG Uplus on Thursday as they were still unable to receive calls or had calls disconnected despite the latest but a belated software update. Angry customers blamed Apple on online communities for posting a notice about its latest software update -- the iOS 15.2 -- more than a month after they demanded fixing the problem. Both the manufacturer and the mobile carrier have also been silent over the defects for over a m

Dec. 16, 2021

[Global Business Forum] ESG, metaverse key to sustainable capitalism: Mirae Asset

Expanding environmental, social and governance investment and building digital businesses make capitalism sustainable, the research chief of Mirae Asset Securities said Wednesday. “It’s all about quality, not quantity, when it comes to growth in capitalism. ESG offers a fresh perspective, while metaverse makes possible a digital world built on private property and a free market, which is the essence of capitalism,” said Seo Cheol-soo, head of research at South Korea’s la

Dec. 16, 2021

Samsung rolls out chips for self-driving cars

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it has begun mass-producing cutting-edge memory chips for an undisclosed auto manufacturer to power a range of connected features including autonomous driving. The newest lineup of chips includes 2-gigabyte GDDR6 graphic dynamic random access memory chips, as well as 128-gigabyte universal flash storage. Both products are designed to support autonomous driving features, including advanced driver assistance systems. Samsung unveiled the industry‘s first u

Dec. 16, 2021

Builders' 2020 sales fall for first time in 21 years on pandemic

South Korean construction companies' sales dropped on-year in 2020 for the first time in 21 years due to the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The combined top line of local builders reached 396.9 trillion won ($336 billion) last year, down 1.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marks the first on-year decline since the 11.1 percent decrease recorded in 1999 in the wake of the country's foreign exchange crisis. Their domestic s

Dec. 16, 2021

Income gap narrows to record low in 2020 on emergency cash handouts

The income gap between the haves and have-nots in South Korea narrowed to a record low in 2020 on the back of the government's provision of emergency cash handouts amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. The Gini coefficient measured with disposable income, a gauge of income inequality, came in at 0.331 last year, down from 0.339 the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. A reading of zero means complete income equality, while higher numbers nearing one indicate a widenin

Dec. 16, 2021

Once-popular Cyworld aims to revive past glory with metaverse

Long before the metaverse and cryptocurrency craze, South Korea had Cyworld, the microblogging platform where people used “dotori” digital money to decorate their personal avatars. It didn’t just exist. It was rabidly popular, counting 32 million users out of the country’s population of 50 million at one point. The once-mighty homegrown platform, however, became a relic of the past with the rise of Facebook, Twitter and the like. It suffered a similar fate to MySpace

Dec. 16, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on eased FOMC uncertainties

South Korean stocks opened steeply higher Thursday, backed by eased uncertainties from the FOMC meeting results. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 25.88 points, or 0.87 percent, to 3,015.27 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks advanced, largely as the FOMC results, particularly the Fed's stimulus withdrawal and interest rate hike, stayed within the market expectation. The Fed said it would double the speed of its tapering of bond purchasing program and

Dec. 16, 2021

S. Korea's 2022 economic growth target set at early 3% range: finance minister

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Thursday the government plans to make efforts to help the country's economy grow in the early 3 percent range next year amid heightened economic uncertainty. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the country plans to focus on boosting domestic demand and conducting fiscal spending in the fourth quarter to achieve the 4 percent range growth target for this year. The finance ministry plans to unveil its 2022 economic policy directions next week. Hong said

Dec. 16, 2021

BMW Korea signs MOU to build R&D center by 2023

BMW Group Korea said Thursday it has signed an initial pact with a provincial government to build a research and development center to provide advanced mobility services to local customers. BMW Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with the Incheon metropolitan city and the Korean Free Economic Zones to build the BMW R&D Center Korea in the Cheongna Incheon Hi-Tech Park by 2023 to advance R&D projects involving autonomous driving, connectivity and electrification, the company said

Dec. 16, 2021

[Graphic News] Overseas card spending down 14.8% in Q3 on weak won

　South Koreans’ overseas card spending declined 14.8 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier as the government tightened rules on withdrawals of money from automatic teller machines and the won depreciated against the dollar, central bank data showed.  　According to the data by the Bank of Korea, the amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, came to $2.88 billion in the July-September period, down from $3.37 billion

Dec. 16, 2021

S. Korea's $60b currency swap deal with US to expire on Dec. 31: BOK

South Korea's $60 billion currency swap contract with the United States will expire as scheduled later this month as financial and economic situations at home and abroad remain stable, Seoul's central bank said Thursday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) and the US Federal Reserve signed the currency swap contract in March 2020 to ease financial anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic and had since extended the deal three times. It is set to expire on Dec. 31. "The temporary currency swap will e

Dec. 16, 2021

Outcome of Fed meeting to have limited impact on S. Korean market: official

The US Federal Reserve's announcement of plans to accelerate the tapering of its asset purchases is expected to have a limited impact on the South Korean financial market as the outcome was in line with market expectations, a senior government official said Thursday. After a two-day policy meeting, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday (US time) it will double the pace of tapering its bond purchases and likely end them in March. The US central bank signaled three rate hikes by the end of 2022 amid

Dec. 16, 2021

New tech by IBM, Samsung may allow phone battery to last for a week

A new breakthrough in semiconductor design jointly developed by global tech giants IBM and Samsung Electronics could allow phone batteries to hold a charge for a week, according to the companies on Wednesday. This architecture -- which, in essence, is to align transistors vertically on a semiconductor chip -- has the potential to reduce energy usage by 85 percent compared to a conventional scaled fin field-effect transistor by allowing greater current flow with less wasted energy, IBM said. I

Dec. 15, 2021

K Auction to go public next year

K Auction, South Korea’s second-largest auction house by revenue, said Wednesday that it plans to go public early next year, having submitted a prospectus for a 32 billion-won ($26 million) listing on the junior Kosdaq exchange. K Auction expects to offer 1.6 million shares at an indicative range of 17,000-20,000 per share, which would raise between 27 billion won and 32 billion won. The company said it will finalize the price range by December after consulting with institutional investor

Dec. 15, 2021

Hyundai Glovis secures exclusive terminal in German port

Hyundai Glovis, the logistics arm of Hyundai Motor Group, became the first global shipping company to secure an exclusive shipping space in the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, Europe’s largest automobile shipping port. Hyundai Glovis announced Wednesday it will establish a 100,000 square-meter open storage yard, big enough to store around 5,000 cars, and three berths in the port of Bremerhaven. The company sealed a contract with BLG Logistics Group that manages the terminals at the port to

Dec. 15, 2021

Seoul index ends higher as tech stocks gain ahead of Fed meeting

South Korea's main stock index ended higher Wednesday, aided by technology stocks, but investors remain cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate decision later in the global day. The Korean won fell against the US dollar.  The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 1.44 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 2,989.39 points, snapping a three-session losing streak. Investors are waiting on cues from the two-day Fed's meeting, which ends Wednesday, to reorganize their p

Dec. 15, 2021

Audi Korea launches EV, high performance models to highlight premium mobility

 Audi Korea sold a total of 21,242 cars from January to November this year, becoming the third-best-selling imported carmaker in Korea, the automaker said Wednesday. According to Audi Korea, it launched various premium and high-performance models such as sedans, SUVs, and electric vehicles this year to enhance its brand image in South Korea as a premium mobility brand. The carmaker accumulated its EV line up in South Korea by launching the Audi R8 V10 Performance in February, followed by

Dec. 15, 2021

Trade Week 2021 offers export opportunities for SMEs

Trade Week 2021 ended its four-day run on Friday, connecting local small and medium sized enterprises with foreign buyers and inviting experts to share insights on globalization strategies. Organized by the Seoul Business Agency, the event offered various business opportunities for participating small enterprises through programs such as online business matching with foreign buyers, live commerce sessions and product launch events. Local daily necessities maker CM Company inked a deal with

Dec. 15, 2021