In a market segment dominated by domestic brand Hyundai and German luxury cars, Volkswagen is seeking a greater presence in the highly competitive sector by introducing its flagship model Arteon, the company’s Seoul branch said Wednesday. Volkswagen’s premium sedan Arteon (Volkswagen Korea)Arteon is a four-door coupe that combines design elements of classic sports car and fastback models. The premium model opens a new chapter in Volkswagen’s design history and is expected to be an exclusive prod

Samsung’s vehicle components unit expands to develop commercial ADAS system, hires software engineers under Lee’s command

South Korean companies should expand their investments and boost the nation’s economy with their cashable assets that have more than doubled over the last seven years, a ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday.According to Rep. Kim Doo-kwan of the Democratic Party of Korea, cashable assets of Korean companies rose 76 percent from 337 trillion won ($298 billion) in 2009 to 594 trillion won last year, citing the reports from the Bank of Korea.   (Yonhap)Cashable assets refer to cash, financial produc

Domestic terminals at Gimpo International Airport reopened Wednesday after decadelong renovations that cost 250 billion won ($222 million). The airport, which was built in 1980, underwent renovations in response to aging buildings, increasing numbers of domestic travelers and the rise of low-cost carriers, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.  Renovated domestic terminals at Gimpo International Airport (Yonhap)The 88,443 square-meter terminal will now enable passengers to qui

South Korea’s coffee shop craze at saturation point amid squeezed market share

Kakao Navi, the mobile navigation app from South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao, now offers upgraded voice command features following the adoption of the firm’s artificial intelligence engine Kakao I, the company said Wednesday. With the change, Kakao Navi users can access key features of Kakao Navi as well as those offered by Kakao’s AI speaker Kakao Mini via voice. To activate, users simply need to say “Hey Kakao,” click the voice command button or make hand gestures near the phone. Kakao

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday that it co-hosted the Digital Development Partnership workshop with the World Bank, sharing Korea’s experience in building a digital economy with high-level representatives from low-income countries. Held from Oct. 15-19, the DDP workshop brought representatives from countries ranging from Angola to Indonesia and Uzbekistan to learn from Korea’s digital development experience across both the public and private sectors.  Boutheina Guermazi,

YouTube servers that went down causing worldwide bafflement Wednesday morning were restored after about an hour.The site was restored at 11:38 a.m. by which time nearly 5,000 tweets had inundated Twitter in Korea with a hashtag for “YouTube Server.”From around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, YouTube users worldwide faced the message “500 Internal Server Error” upon trying to visit the video streaming site. The error page explained, “Sorry, something went wrong,” but added, “A team of highly trained monkey

South Korea's airport operator said Wednesday that it has completed a 250 billion won ($222 million) renovation of the domestic terminal at Gimpo International Airport in southwestern Seoul.The terminal built in 1980 -- which is used for domestic travelers -- underwent a decadelong progressive upgrade so as not to affect normal operations, according to the Korea Airports Corp. (Yonhap)People using the 88,443 square-meter terminal can now benefit from a shorter baggage processing time of about fi

YouTube users worldwide faced the message “500 Internal Servor Error” upon trying to visit the video streaming site, Wednesday.The error page explains, “Sorry, something went wrong,” but adds, “A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.”A YouTube Korea representative told The Korea Herald they are “internally investigating the temporary error” that has occurred globally. As of the time of publication, some site functionality had been restored, but videos wo

More local companies are switching to blind hiring for new recruits, looking more at qualifications for required skills rather than alma mater, hometowns and language proficiency, an analysis indicated Wednesday.According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, the surveyed firms mostly adopted blind hiring for select positions. (Yonhap)Lotte Department Store uses the hiring system for its merchandisers, CJ ENM for its concert planners, KT for software developers and Doosan Heavy Industries &

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to open its seventh artificial intelligence research center in Montreal in line with efforts to bolster its capabilities in the field, industry sources said Wednesday.The new center will become Samsung's second AI center in Canada, along with one in Toronto.(Yonhap)Samsung Electronics has AI research centers in South Korea, Britain and Russia, as well as in the United States, where it has a center in Silicon Valley and another in New York.The upcoming center in Mont

When addressing Southeast Asian states as “ASEAN,” foreign investors are often inclined to overlook the individual economic, legal and cultural differences of each country, according to a legal expert. “Cultural disparity is a frequent challenge for foreign investors who seek to affiliate themselves with an unknown business environment,” Jeong Cheol, a lawyer at Jipyong LLC, said at The Korea Herald Biz Forum.“It may thus be a critical error to presume that the business experience and insight in

Economic power minus hegemonic ambition makes Seoul attractive long-term partner for ASEAN

Amid South Korea’s increasing pivot toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, foreign diplomats from the region expressed confidence in deeper and diversified bilateral economic ties at a business forum organized by The Korea Herald on Tuesday.At “The Korea Herald Biz Forum: ASEAN and New Asia” in Seoul, envoys from the 10 member countries introduced investment opportunities from their home turfs, including the latest policies, free trade agreements, special economic zones, incentives a