Google’s biggest round of layoffs across its global operations has forced workers into a game of chance to keep their jobs. Amid escalating job insecurity, a labor union has been set up at the Korean unit to organize some 850 workers and speak out their concerns. “With the ongoing job cuts within the US tech industry, employees have been concerned about their job security and decided to establish a union,” Kim Jong-sub, head of the Google Korea union, said upon its launch earli

Technology April 20, 2023

Samsung Electronics has regained the top spot in the global smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, slightly outpacing its archrival Apple, the No. 1 in the previous quarter, a report showed Wednesday. In the January-March period, Samsung held a market share of 22 percent, followed by Apple with 21 percent, according to the report released by market tracker Canalys. The South Korean tech giant was the “only leading vendor” to achieve a quarterly jump during the first thr

Technology April 19, 2023

Speculation is growing that Samsung Electronics may be ditching its close ties with Google by replacing the default search engine for its flagship Galaxy devices with Microsoft’s Bing which has been upgraded with OpenAI’s powerful chatbot, ChatGPT. According to industry sources and media reports on Tuesday, Samsung was considering switching to Bing last month, putting roughly $3 billion in annual revenue at risk for Google. Citing internal documents, the New York Times reported that

Technology April 18, 2023

The highly publicized debut of Apple Pay last month has prompted unexpected calls in South Korea for Samsung Pay to be usable with the Galaxy Watch. Apple Pay became available in March here nearly a decade after its debut in the US in 2014. All Apple mobile devices, including iPhones and Apple Watches, support the new feature based on near-field communication technology. Amid the buzz surrounding Apple Pay, a growing number of Galaxy Watch users are now wondering why they cannot use Samsung Pay

Technology April 17, 2023

US space firm SpaceX, which is set to launch its low-orbit satellite communication service in South Korea within the second quarter, is seeking to work with the major telecom operators here, sources told The Korea Herald Monday. The Elon Musk-owned firm, approaching SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus separately, had offered to sell its satellite internet network service, Starlink, to the telecoms firms, the sources said. The contract terms were not disclosed due to a nondisclosure agreement. As t

Technology April 17, 2023

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo is belatedly found to have filed a complaint against the South Korean tax administrative agency, claiming that the inheritance taxes imposed on him were excessively hefty, according to the business circles on Sunday. Koo took legal action against the head of the National Tax Service’s regional office in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, in the latter half of last year to request the cancellation of inheritance tax overpayment. The chairman jointly filed a suit with

Industry April 16, 2023

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest TV maker by shipments, said Sunday that six of its Neo quantum-dot light-emitting diode TVs have been globally certified for carbon footprint by Carbon Trust, a UK-based carbon management and reduction organization. The models -- three of its 75-inch Neo QLED 8K and three of its 75-inch Neo QLED 4K screens -- obtained the certification in recognition of Samsung’s efforts to reduce the products’ weight and power consumption compared to pr

Technology April 16, 2023

The Supreme Court on Thursday finalized a ruling in favor of the South Korean antitrust regulator’s record fine of 1.03 trillion won ($784 million) imposed on US chip giant Qualcomm Inc. for unfair business practices. The top court turned down the appeal by the San Diego-based firm and its two affiliates. Back in December 2016, the Fair Trade Commission slapped a fine on Qualcomm for abusing its dominant market position against smartphone makers. “Under the Fair Trade Act, we reaffir

Industry April 13, 2023

South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday it is imposing a fine of 42.1 billion won ($32 million) on Google LLC, Google Korea and Google Asia Pacific, along with a corrective order, for abusing their market dominance to solidify the No. 1 position in the local mobile gaming app market. The move came as the US platform giant pressured South Korean mobile game publishers to launch their new games through Google Play exclusively, prohibiting them from releasing their content on the One S

Industry April 11, 2023

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

Technology April 10, 2023

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

Technology April 7, 2023

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

Technology April 7, 2023

Upon arrival in Korea last week, an on-site inspection delegation from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the regulating body of World Expos, paid a visit to Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, to look around a slew of exhibition booths set up by the nation’s top conglomerates. LG Group operated a huge booth, titled "Better Future for All with LG," where diverse technological innovations were showcased to impress the BIE delegation and express Korea’s strong will to ho

Industry April 6, 2023

The Ho-Am Foundation on Wednesday announced the winners of its annual Samsung Ho-Am Prize award for this year in the fields of science, engineering, medicine, arts and community service. This year’s prizes went to Ihm Ji-soon, a distinguished professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, for physics and mathematics; Choi Kyoung-shin, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, for chemistry and life sciences; Sun Yang-kook, chair professor at Hanyang University, in engineer

Industry April 5, 2023

A South Korean civic group that has advocated for net neutrality for years has recently found itself at the center of controversy, as it is suspected of getting funds from global tech giants like Netflix and Google, according to industry sources on Monday. In February, the non-profit organization, called Open Net, released the results of a survey asking people their opinions about a pending bill that aims to impose fees for network use on streaming service companies -- a thorny issue in the glob

Industry April 3, 2023