The opening of US premium burger joint Shake Shack’s first outlet in South Korea was the talk of the town last year, with hundreds of people enduring long waits to taste the famous hamburger hailing from New York City.Seven months into its opening, the brand’s first store near Gangnam Station continues to see long lines of customers day and night. And this store currently boasts the No. 1 sales across all of Shake Shack’s outlets worldwide, the brand’s founding chairman revealed Monday.“There ar

Industry Feb. 27, 2017

Samsung SDS, the Internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s Samsung Group, is showcasing its artificially intelligent chatbot training solution for retailers at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.　Samsung SDS said Monday that it will showcase its “Nexshop Training” solution for retailers at this year’s MWC taking place from Feb. 27 to Mar. 2. Samsung SDS presents its new AI-powered training solution for retailers "Nexshop Training” at the MWC in Barcelona on Monday. (Samsung SDS)Its

Technology Feb. 27, 2017

South Korea’s Celltrion announced Wednesday that the European Medicines Agency has granted sales approval to Truxima, its biosimilar drug referencing Roche’s blockbuster lymphatic cancer drug Rituxan.　Truxima is the first ever Rituxan (rituximab) biosimilar to be approved by the European drug regulator, as well as the first ever Europe-approved biosimilar monoclonal antibody used to target cancer.Biosimilars are cheaper, near replicas of living cell-based biologic drugs whose patents have expire

Industry Feb. 22, 2017

Google on Wednesday announced plans to host the second Google Play Indie Games Festival in South Korea, pledging efforts to support the growth of small-sized local game developers.Google Play, the official app store for Android-based smartphones, has opened up registration for Korea-based game developers looking to partake in its second indie games festival here. Registrations will end on April 2.Chang Hyun-se, head of Google Play’s business development at Google Korea (Googe Korea)The Google Pl

Technology Feb. 22, 2017

South Korean mobile messenger giant Kakao said Tuesday its simplified mobile payment service unit Kakao Pay has secured $200 million in investment from the financial arm of China’s Alibaba Group, a move that broadens the scope of the two firms’ services.Kakao said it has struck a partnership with the Hangzhou-based Ant Financial Services Group, under which Kakao Pay will be synchronized with China’s widely used Alipay to allow subscribers of both services to use both systems.As part of the partn

Technology Feb. 21, 2017

Google Campus Seoul, a co-working space for startups operated by the US internet technology giant, on Tuesday pledged to offer more tailored support to South Korean startups to help their growth and global expansion in 2017.　 “This year, we want to offer more tailored programs to encourage new growth, global expansion and diversity among Korean startups,” said Jeffrey Lim, head of Google Campus Seoul. Google Campus Seoul head Jeffrey Lim (second from right) poses with local startup CEOs at the C

Technology Feb. 21, 2017

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have brought significant improvements in automated translations, which was accompanied by a sense of uneasiness that it would eventually spell an end to human translators.In a pre-emptive attempt to explore this question, a battle between a professional human translator and AI-powered translation software will take place in South Korea on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The event will be broadcast live via the Sejong Cyber University website.Organized by Sejong Cyber

Technology Feb. 20, 2017

NAVER’S AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE LICENSED -- Naver Labs, the research and development unit of South Korean portal website Naver, won a government license that allows the company to test-drive its autonomous vehicle on the road. Naver’s vehicle was the 13th self-driving car to be approved by the Transportation Ministry since its introduction of a temporary license system for autonomous vehicles in development in February 2016. Naver is the first local information technology company to have obtained a l

Technology Feb. 20, 2017

Niantic, co-developer of hit augmented reality mobile game “Pokemon Go,” has reportedly partnered with convenience store chain 7-Eleven in South Korea to designate select 7-Eleven outlets here as either “Pokegyms” or “Pokestops.”　It marks the first-ever corporate partnership between “Pokemon Go” and a major retailer in Korea, fueling expectations the game — which involves people visiting real-life locations to catch “Pokemon” on their smartphones — can help boost local businesses.  (Niantic)News

Technology Feb. 20, 2017

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising start-ups in the emerging sectors of digital healthcare and next-generation medical devices. This is the first installment. –Ed.Digital technologies continually transform every industry, but one area that technological advances are forecast to impact the most in the years ahead is the global health care sector.　Eyeing new opportunities, global tech companies, medical device firms as well as startups have beg

Technology Feb. 19, 2017

The arrest of Samsung Group’ de facto leader Lee Jae-yong on Friday over his ties to the presidential scandal involving Choi Soon-sil, was a shock to many, as it marked the first-ever detainment of the chief of South Korea’s biggest conglomerate in its 79-year history.Over the past decades, prosecutors have regularly targeted the head of Korea’s biggest and most powerful family-controlled conglomerate for corporate misbehavior. However, neither Lee Kun-hee, the bedridden chairman of Samsung Elec

Technology Feb. 17, 2017

The arrest of Samsung Group’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong on Friday has ignited alarm among South Korea’s top conglomerates whose chiefs face similar charges of bribing the government. Lee, the son of Samsung’s ailing Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was detained on charges of bribery, perjury and embezzlement over his involvement in the influence-peddling scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.(Yonhap)The special prosecutor team had been examining whether the vice chairman of Sams

Industry Feb. 17, 2017

Kakao Taxi, a taxi hailing app operated by South Korea’s mobile giant Kakao, will feature a new automated payment function within the first half of this year, the company said Tuesday.　Kakao has entered a new partnership with Korea Smart Card Co. to jointly introduce an auto pay option on the KakaoTaxi app that is widely used by those in Korea. Once the new feature is added, KakaoTaxi app users will be presented with an “auto payment” option which would automatically pay for the taxi fare when t

Technology Feb. 17, 2017

South Korean internet technology giants Naver and Kakao have begun to incorporate artificial intelligence “chatbots” into their platforms, seeking to become key stakeholders in the fast-growing online commerce sector. Chatbots are AI-powered computer programs that can mimic human conversations and react to spoken or written prompts to deliver services. Global IT firms like Facebook and Google have already introduced chatbots for businesses on its mobile messengers which can handle tasks such as

Technology Feb. 15, 2017

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been rated the country’s “most promising” information technology company, according to a research report Tuesday.　According to a nationwide survey conducted by Seoul-based market research provider Consumer Insight, Kakao ranked No. 1 in terms of the most promising IT company. Kakao’s forays into new services beyond its flagship mobile messenger -- including taxi hailing, navigation, financial technology as well as beau

Technology Feb. 14, 2017