Samsung Design Europe in London researches trends among young Europeans to make Samsung products more fashionable

KOGAS to invest W1tr in liquefied natural gas, hydrogen

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold a combined 111,406 units in the United States last month, up roughly 3.5 percent on-year on the back of strong sales of sport utility vehicles in the overall US auto market, the company said Wednesday.Of the total, Hyundai’s luxury sedan brand Genesis accounted for 613 units.By carmaker, Hyundai Motor sold 57,542 units last month, up 6 percent, the company said. The Avante compact car was the No. 1 seller with 14,502 units, followed by the midsize SUV Tucson wit

South Korean co-working space company FastFive is making a foray into the apartment rental service business in Seoul next year, with aims to broaden the scope of its business beyond co-working space rentals to small firms and startups with accommodation needs.FastFive on Wednesday announced the launch of Life, a residential service brand targeting single-person households in the 20s and 30s demographic. It plans to open the first Life apartment building near Seonjeongneung Station in Gangnam Dis

South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang said Wednesday it has tapped Doug Inamine as new senior vice president to head its global human resources. Doug Inamine, Coupang’s new global HR senior vice president (Coupang)An HR expert with 25 years of experience who has worked at multinational companies in Asia and Europe, public companies and startups, Inamine is expected to play a positive role in changes and innovations at Coupang, the company said.His experience includes developing recruiting program

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s most popular mobile messenger service, KakaoTalk, said Wednesday that it would soon roll out a new feature that would allow users to delete sent messages, making them disappear from both the sender’s chat room and the receiver’s. 　The company expects to debut the new function possibly as soon as the end of the year, a company spokesperson said, adding that the change will not be included in the next version 8.0 update scheduled this week. Right now, it’s poss

Audi Korea began test running its partially self-driving car at the country’s test bed for automated vehicles in Gyeonggi Province, the company said Wednesday, becoming the first import carmaker to test out its self-driving technology here.Since receiving authorization to test out its driverless Audi A8 flagship car this March from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, experts from German headquarters flew in last month and held a pre-test run at K-City, Korea’s test bed for self-d

South Korean dessert cafe franchise Sulbing said Wednesday it will open its first Middle Eastern store in Kuwait, as the company moves to expand its presence in overseas markets.Sulbing said it plans to sign a franchise deal with Muhallab Alghanim this year to tap the Middle Eastern market. (Sulbing)"We will expand our businesses to encompass Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, starting with the Kuwait store," the company said in a statement. The dessert franchise has been opening oversea

Philips Korea, the local unit of Dutch health care giant Philips, has appointed Kim Dong-hee as its new chief executive. The incoming CEO, whose career has focused on the health care industry, will also simultaneously serve as the general manager of Philips Korea’s health systems division, the company said. Philips Korea`s new CEO Kim Dong-hee (Philips Korea)Kim is a seasoned expert in the medical device business, having spent 14 years managing health care businesses in the Asia-Pacific region i

Daily debit card spending in South Korea jumped in the first half of this year on the back of state tax benefits and other incentives, central bank data showed Wednesday.The average amount of daily transactions processed through debit cards came to 491 billion won ($439.76 million) in the January-June period, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.The figure has been on a constant rise over the past several years, as consumers can enjoy diverse benefits including an e

Purchases made using the Internet and mobile devices in South Korea reached an all-time high in July, government data showed Wednesday, demonstrating the popularity of smartphones, fast delivery and convenient payment options offered to local shoppers.The total value of transactions made with computers, smartphones and tablets reached a record 9.45 trillion won ($8.45 billion) in July, up 22.7 percent, or 1.75 trillion won, from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. (Yonha

US food delivery app Uber Eats said Wednesday that it has signed a partnership with South Korean food service company CJ Foodville in the latest move to boost its presence in the country's growing food delivery market.Uber Eats said major CJ Foodville brands, such as VIPS, Cheiljemyunso, The Place and Juice Solution, would be easily accessible through its app in Seoul, a heavily populated city with a population of some 10 million. (Yonhap)Eight out of 10 South Koreans use smartphones, and they i

A worker died of carbon dioxide poisoning Tuesday at the Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant in Giheung, Gyeonggi Province, during an inspection of fire-safety equipment, the company confirmed. Two other workers involved in the accident were in critical condition as of Tuesday evening, it said. According to a Samsung Electronics spokesperson, the accident occurred at 1:55 p.m. Tuesday in an area within the basement used to store firefighting equipment, located below the 6-3 production line a

South Korea’s first-ever driverless vehicle to be developed by a municipality -- dubbed Zero Shuttle -- began a test drive Tuesday at the second Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.Two of the level-four autonomous 11-seaters will run between the entrance of the second Pangyo Techno Valley and the Pangyo subway station, a distance of about 5.5 kilometers. The vans will travel at 25 kilometers per hour. There are five levels of autonomy among self-driving vehicles, with a level-fiv

ECCK chairman and chief of Benz Korea says creativity, flexibility just as important as discipline