Statistics Korea’s data on Monday showed the male ratio at birth in South Korea fell to the lowest level last year, implicating the end of the country’s long-held tradition of boy preference. The gender ratio at birth, or the number of baby boys per every 100 baby girls born, stood at 104.9 in 2020 -- the lowest since the institution started to collect related data in 1990. The figure is close to a natural level observed worldwide of about 105 boys to every 100 girls. This repres

Industry March 1, 2021

Netflix Korea will disclose its audit reports in March, which would be its first regulatory filing since entering the country in 2016. The local unit of the US media platform giant is incorporated as a limited liability company here, but has become newly subject to disclosure rules applied for publicly traded firms. The change is due to the effectuation last year of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies, amended in 2017 to enhance business transparency and p

Technology March 1, 2021

Artiva Biotherapeutics, an affiliate of South Korean pharmaceutical firm Green Cross, announced Sunday that it has secured $120 million in Series B financing to develop natural killer (NK) cell-based cancer therapies. Artiva Biotherapeutics said its new investor Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners has led the latest financing. Other new investors include Acuta Capital Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Franklin Templeton, according to the company. The injection of fresh cap

Technology Feb. 28, 2021

Celltrion founder and honorary chairman Seo Jung-jin’s eldest son Seo Jin-seok is expected to obtain a seat in the company’s boardroom next month, industry sources said on Sunday. Celltrion is to finalize the appointment of the junior Seo as executive director at the shareholder meeting scheduled on March 26, the sources added. The first son has been serving as senior vice president for Celltrion since 2017. Seo Jin-seok also spearheaded Celltrion Skin Cure, the group’s cos

Technology Feb. 28, 2021

A bill from South Korea’s antitrust regulator aimed to govern dominant e-commerce platforms is still pending in the National Assembly due to a tug of war between two government bodies -- the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Communications Commission. In the meantime, platform operators and local customers have been raising their concerns, viewing the regulatory move as excessive market intervention. A survey conducted by Korea Startup Forum showed Monday that around 61 percent of res

Technology Feb. 22, 2021

SK hynix’s operating profit for the first quarter this year is expected to hit 1.36 trillion won ($1.2 billion), up 70.6 percent on-year, Shinhan Investment said Friday. The brokerage also forecast in its report that the company’s revenue during the three month period could go up 14.2 percent on-year to reach 8.2 trillion won. The on-year growth was mostly attributed to the increasing price in dynamic random-access memory products, or DRAM products, and the recent turnaround in ma

Technology Feb. 19, 2021

Kakao Mobility, South Korea’s largest mobility-as-a-service platform operator, is expected to accelerate its business expansion with a recent investment from Carlyle Group. International investment firm Carlyle Group Thursday agreed to invest $200 million in Kakao Mobility, valuing the South Korean mobility platform operator at 3.42 trillion won ($3.09 billion). Kakao Mobility currently operates Kakao T, the country’s most popular taxi-hailing platform used by around 28 million u

Technology Feb. 19, 2021

Lotte Chemical said Thursday that the company has developed urethane-based semi-non-combustible insulation product. The company added that the new fire-resistant insulation product can reduce the amount of smoke by 30 percent in case of a fire, compared to conventional urethane-based insulation products. According to the petrochemical affiliate of Lotte Group, it took two years for the firm to conduct research on the new insulation product, using purified isophthalic acid, which is widely u

Industry Feb. 18, 2021

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Thursday that it has decided to spend a total of 34.7 billion to build research facilities for robotics and artificial intelligence near Suseo-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The central government will inject 24.2 billion won in the project, while the city government and the Gangnam-gu office will invest 2.5 billion won and 7.8 billion won, respectively. The region near Suseo Station has remained idle since December 2019, when the city government decided

Technology Feb. 18, 2021

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has appointed the institution’s provost and executive vice president Lee Kwang-hyung as its new president, it said Thursday. KAIST held a board meeting to appoint Lee the 17th president of the institution upon approval of Minister of Science and ICT. Lee, who is known as a futurist who introduced convergence studies at the academic institution, is an alumnus who earned a master‘s degree in industrial engineering at KAIST in 198

Technology Feb. 18, 2021

The South Korean government will roll out massive support programs for exporters this year, aiming to return the country’s export volume to pre-pandemic levels, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday. Exports, the main locomotive of Asia’s fourth largest economy, are projected to have fallen below $1 trillion for the first time in four years due to economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the annual plan from the Ministry of Trade, Industry an

Industry Feb. 17, 2021

Naver plans to raise as much as 700 billion won through bond sales to secure funds required to set up a new data center in South Korea and invest in foreign platform startups. The South Korean internet giant disclosed the plan, which would be the largest in its history, in a regulatory filing with the Financial Services Commission on Tuesday. The target amount is set initially at 400 billion won, with a possibility of rising to 700 billion won, it said. The bond issue will be Naver’s

Technology Feb. 17, 2021

Google’s revenue from app store fees in South Korea could increase by more than 150 billion won a year when the company’s billing policy changes take effect later this year, a local lawmaker said Tuesday. In September last year, Google announced that the company would enforce a 30 percent commission on all in-app purchases of digital content from its app store, starting in October, 2021. Google has so far charged fees on game content sales only. Rep. Park Sung-joong of the oppos

Technology Feb. 16, 2021

South Korean researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based acoustic sensor that resembles the human cochlea, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said Monday. The research team, led by KAIST professors Lee Keon-jae and Wang Hee-seung, said they used an ultrathin piezoelectric membrane to mimic the basilar membrane in the cochlea, which acts as an analyzer to translate frequency of sounds. Equipped with machine learning-based speaker recognition, the new acoust

Technology Feb. 15, 2021

S-Oil, South Korea’s No. 3 refiner, is expected to see an improvement in profits this year, continuing a recovery momentum from the final quarter of 2020, according to the industry sources Sunday. S-Oil said the company expects a recovery based on the increasing profitability of the company’s petrochemical products, including propylene oxide and polypropylene. S-Oil noted the company plans to increase production capacity for propylene oxide through which the company managed to off

Industry Feb. 14, 2021