With the government lifting nearly all social distancing measures, retailers in South Korea are now pinning high hopes on a business recovery after enduring two years of strict pandemic restrictions that limited operating hours, private gatherings and even food tasting at the grocery store. Supermarkets, which have been hit hard due to pandemic restrictions, are in talks with the government to return to offering in-store samples, which has been banned since last July. An Emart official and a

Consumer April 18, 2022

CJ Logistics, South Korea’s largest logistics firm, said Sunday that it is set to raise up to 740 billion won ($602 million) to construct major fulfillment centers in the metropolitan area, accelerating its e-commerce business. The firm will first raise 250 billion won in cash with Samsung SRA Asset Management, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Group, and plans to borrow the remaining 490 billion won from other financial companies. The fund will be operated for eight years until

Consumer April 17, 2022

Korea’s food delivery app Baemin logged 2.3 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in sales last year, a 70-fold surge from 2014 when it started filing financial reports to authorities, its operator Woowa Brothers said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. “The stellar performance in recent years was largely driven by COVID-19, with many restaurant partners joining our app,” said an official from Woowa Brothers. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the company surpassed 1 trillion won i

Consumer April 12, 2022

South Korean luxury resort developer Ananti said Tuesday that it has decided to pull out from its resort and golf club project in the Kumgangsan tourist zone of North Korea, a business that once symbolized inter-Korean rapprochement. The decision comes after a news report that Pyongyang appears to have started demolishing South Korean facilities at the Kumgangsan Ananti Golf & Spa Resort on the North’s eastern coast. On Monday, US news outlet NK News published satellite images sugg

Industry April 12, 2022

Korean companies exporting kimchi or food containing the Korean spicy cabbage are on high alert after a decades-long cultural feud over its origin has resurfaced online. Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul and a cultural heritage activist, blasted a local bakery chain on Monday for using Chinese word “pao cai,” in the Chinese translation of the name of one of its breads. Starting in March, the bakery has written the Chinese translation of its k

Consumer April 11, 2022

Korea’s online luxury sellers who have enjoyed the recent resell market boom are strengthening the counterfeit inspection process amid a scandal involving fashion commercial platform Musinsa, industry sources said Friday. On April 1, Naver’s online reselling platform Kream announced that the Essentials T-shirts sold through Musinsa by the brand operator Fear of God were proven to be fake. Musinsa, which has strongly objected to the counterfeit claims raised by Kream and has warned

Consumer April 8, 2022

Kakao Mobility, the country’s leading taxi-hailing service operator, said Thursday it will expand its domestic-focused business, with its next-generation mobility technology and user-friendly service. “This year will be the starting point of Kakao Mobility to enter the global market, as we move ‘Beyond Korea,’” said Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-sun in an online press conference. Ryu said the company will expand its taxi-hailing service -- currently available in s

Technology April 7, 2022

Korea’s real estate platform Rsquare said Wednesday it will provide commercial real estate services in Vietnam with Shinhan Bank’s branch in Vietnam. The firm will offer brokerage service, asset management, interior construction, residential property consulting and property inspection for Shinhan Bank Vietnam clients. According to Rsquare, it has compiled data on over 10,000 offices and commercial buildings in major Vietnamese cities including Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. “U

Technology April 6, 2022

South Korean IT platform giant Kakao will expand its overseas revenue by 30 percent in the next three years to diversify its heavily domestic business-reliant income source, the company said on Wednesday. “The 56 overseas branches aim to boost their sales revenue by 40 percent this year. By 2025, we plan to increase overseas revenue to account for 30 percent of total sales, compared to the current 10 percent,” said Kim Sung-su, co-head of Kakao’s corporate alignment center.

Technology April 6, 2022

Kakaopay Securities, the stock brokerage arm of Korea‘s mobile payment platform KakaoPay, said Tuesday it will launch a new service in June through which one can buy stocks as gifts with its payment platform that has over 37 million subscribers. “Users can give both domestic and foreign stocks to friends and family with a gift card featuring Kakao Friends characters,” said Kakaopay Securities co-CEO Lee Seung-hyo during an online press conference. Users receive the stock gift

Market April 5, 2022

South Korean fintech company Quantit said Monday it has received the best disruptive solution award at Technology Award 2021 hosted by Asian Private Banker. The firm was recognized for its robo-adviser service, dubbed RABIT, which uses artificial intelligence to offer investment strategies that reduce volatility in the high-risk cryptocurrency market. The service allows for a relatively safe investment in digital assets because it doesn’t require any transfer of assets to the robo-advis

Market April 4, 2022

SSG.com, the digital shopping platform of retail giant Shinsegae Group, said Monday it will launch a cross-border shopping service for international shoppers. The company will sell over 9.6 million fashion and beauty items, as well as processed food on Gmarket Global’s English and Chinese online malls, as part of the first collaborative project following Shinsegae’s acquisition of eBay Korea, since renamed Gmarket Global, last year. International shoppers from over 80 countries in

Consumer April 4, 2022

Oh Chung-hee, a product designer at Korean fintech startup Toss, was at first reluctant to go on a two-week “workcation,” worrying it was going to be a hassle. But her worries melted away soon after she arrived at the company’s workcation site in the southern coastal region of Namhae, South Gyeongsang Province. Instead of going to work on a jam-packed bus or subway like others in Seoul, Oh started her day by enjoying the vast open scenery and fresh air. “Changing the wo

Technology April 3, 2022

Korea’s food giant Pulmuone said Sunday it has completed the construction of its second tofu factory in China, as it looks to accelerate its expansion in the growing market there. Located in the eastern Beijing of Pinggu, the new factory can produce 1,800 kilograms of tofu annually, increasing the productivity by 400 percent compared to the old factory. The second factory will produce a variety of tofu for soup, salad and steamed dish, tofu noodle, and soybean milk, according to the com

Consumer April 3, 2022

Forget about concerns of kimchi keeping its freshness and leaking its “unique smell” when shipped overseas. Korean companies are seeking ways to expand their kimchi exports by adopting new packaging methods, increasing overseas production and obtaining scientific proof that the traditional side dish is beneficial to one’s health. The state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. announced Thursday it has launched a new kimchi product that can improve bowel movement an

Consumer March 31, 2022