Naver Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Korea's IT giant Naver, said Friday it has teamed up with Philippine fiber optic internet provider Converge ICT Solutions to speed up digital transformation in the Southeast Asian country. Under the deal, the two sides agreed to collaborate to discuss ways to leverage Naver’s expertise to deliver innovative cloud solutions for the specific needs of Filipino customers. Converge is the fastest-growing broadband provider in the Philippines with a f

Technology May 10, 2024

South Korea is projected to account for nearly 20 percent of global semiconductor production in 2032, reaching an all-time high in output, a US report showed on Thursday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy is predicted to take up 19 percent of global chip production eight years later, according to a report by the Semiconductor Industry Association, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group. The report evaluated that Korea invested in the development of the semiconductor industry from the

Technology May 9, 2024

Takeshi Idezawa, CEO of the Tokyo-based LY Corp., the operator of the messaging app Line, said Wednesday that the company has requested its key shareholder Naver to sell stakes in an apparent move to cut the Korean firm’s control over its management. The decision comes as Naver is under growing pressure from the Japanese government to shed its ownership in Line, the popular app the Korean firm has nurtured over the past 13 years. Currently, almost 70 percent of the Japanese population is k

Industry May 8, 2024

Tech firms have joined forces both domestically and globally to take on US chip giant Nvidia in the AI chip sector, which has enjoyed a near monopoly in the burgeoning market. An increasing number of global Big Tech companies are building their own AI ecosystems amid expectations for continuous growth in the sector, according to experts on Tuesday. While Nvidia has teamed up with SK hynix and TSMC to further strengthen its technical leadership in high-bandwidth memory chips, other tech firms are

Technology May 7, 2024

Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics made a mockery of its rival Apple on social media last week, after some iPhone users came forward complaining that their alarms had failed to go off. In a post on Instagram, Samsung UK shared a dog meme alongside text that reads "Rest assured our alarms go off.” It also wrote, “Samsung users woke up on time today.” According to industry sources, some iPhone users recently complained on social media, including TikTok, of inconveniences

Technology May 6, 2024

Korea’s antitrust regulator has approved IT giant Kakao’s acquisition of a 39.87 percent stake in SM Entertainment, the K-pop agency behind EXO, aespa and NCT, contingent upon the implementation of corrective measures. The Fair Trade Commission said Thursday that it imposed two forms of corrective measures to address concerns that the merger of Kakao, a major IT company that owns both the music streaming service Melon and SM Entertainment, may pose a threat to competition in the loca

Industry May 2, 2024

Marking the 140th anniversary this year, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry or KCCI, the nation's largest business lobby, hosted the Global Business Networking Night event in Seoul on Tuesday to further promote foreign investment and attract global companies to nurture the country as the business hub in Asia. “Starting with tonight's event, the KCCI will further strengthen its role as an economic and diplomatic platform,” KCCI Chair Chey Tae-won, who also serves as

Industry May 1, 2024

SK Telecom, Korea's largest wireless carrier by the number of subscribers, said Tuesday it aims to introduce a large language model specializing in telecom-related terms as early as June. The upcoming telecom-specific LLM is developed from general-purpose LLMs such as ChatGPT and Claude. SK Telecom joined hands with global Big Tech firms including OpenAI and Anthropic to develop the LLM. Telco-specific LLMs are more adjusted to the telecommunications domain and better at understanding use

Technology April 30, 2024

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is planning to visit Korea in early June to attend the company's global conference in Seoul, according to industry sources Monday. The AI Summit event, which is held multiple times a year across countries, typically highlights Intel’s local subsidiaries. It shares knowledge on the intersection between artificial intelligence technology and business models for key players in the industry. Sources predicted the summit will be held on June 5, which will mark the

Industry April 29, 2024

South Korean telecom carrier KT Corp. said Monday it is expanding its advanced artificial intelligence technology to the group’s entire media business, from content investment and production to marketing and control, to accelerate innovation. "The media business is one of KT's three core businesses, along with communications and AI,” Kim Hoon-bae, executive vice president of the media platform business unit at KT, said in a press conference held earlier in the day in Seou

Technology April 29, 2024

Concerns are mounting that Korean portal giant Naver may lose its management rights for Line, the immensely popular messaging app in Japan it has nurtured over the past 13 years, amid a rare intervention by the Japanese government. Since last month, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has directed Tokyo-based LY Corp., the operator of Line, to lower its dependency on Naver in the wake of a data breach incident last year. Currently, almost 70 percent of the Japanese popul

Industry April 26, 2024

Samsung Electronics President and mobile business chief Roh Tae-moon and Google Senior Vice President Rick Osterloh, who oversees the company’s platforms and devices team, met in Seoul on Thursday and discussed ways to strengthen their partnership on artificial intelligence. After a meeting with Roh on Thursday, Osterloh posted later in the day on X, previously known as Twitter, with a picture taken with the Korean tech giant’s mobile chief. “Had a terrific conversation with TM

Industry April 26, 2024

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said Thursday it has returned to profit, thanks to its leadership in advanced memory chips critical to generative artificial intelligence tools, recovering from a long slump in the memory market. The company reported a quarterly operating income of 2.89 trillion won ($2.10 billion) for the January-March period, compared with a loss of 3.4 trillion won marked a year ago. The figure is far higher than the consensus of 1.86 trillion won b

Technology April 25, 2024

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said Wednesday it will expand the production capacity of next-generation DRAM, including High Bandwidth Memory, which is critical to generative artificial intelligence tools, in response to rapidly increasing demand for AI chips. The decision came as the board of directors approved the plan during a meeting held later in the day to build the M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, for a new DRAM production site, according to

Technology April 24, 2024

South Korea launched its first homegrown earth observation nanosatellite into orbit as part of the country’s project to create a satellite constellation by 2027, the Science Ministry said Wednesday. The Earth observation satellite, named NEONSAT-1, lifted off aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from a spaceport in Mahia, New Zealand. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the satellite was deployed into space at an altitude of 520 kilometers and successfully separated from the launch ve

Technology April 24, 2024