The chiefs of 20 large business groups in South Korea, including top conglomerate Samsung Group, did not register themselves as board members of their affiliates, the antitrust regulator said Wednesday, a move widely seen as an attempt to avoid managerial responsibilities. As of May, the owners of Samsung, chemicals-to-construction conglomerate Hanwha, leading shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries and 17 other conglomerates were not board members of the groups' affiliates, the Korea Fair Trade C

Samsung Electronics Co. was the largest smartphone vendor in Russia in the third quarter of the year, beating its Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co., a report showed Wednesday. Samsung accounted for 28.4 percent of smartphone sales in Russia in the July-September period, edging out Huawei by 2.9 percentage points, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. China's Xiaomi Corp. came in third with a 22.6 percent share in the third quarter, followed by Apple Inc. with a 9.2 percent

Senior transport ministry official talks COVID-19, travel bubbles and Korean Air-Asiana acquisition

Kia Motors’ labor union on Wednesday began a partial strike, its third collective action this year, following the collapse of negotiations over wages and other issues a day earlier. Lost production from strikes this year is expected to exceed 30,000 vehicles. Representatives of the management and the union held talks for two days, but failed to reach a compromise. Following the talks’ collapse at midnight Tuesday, the union decided to cut work short by four hours per day for three

Samsung Electronics invested W16tr in R&D, Naver spent most in proportion to sales

Samsung Electronics Co. was the fourth-largest vendor of wearable devices in the third quarter of the year, a market report showed Wednesday, amid soaring global demand for wearables. Samsung shipped 11.2 million units of wearable devices in the July-September period, up 32.2 percent from a year earlier, for a market share of 9 percent, according to the latest report from market tracker International Data Corp. (IDC). "Samsung's strategy to attack the earwear market with multiple brands

In a country first, Korean Air transported raw materials used to make COVID-19 vaccine from Korea to the Netherlands on Tuesday, the company said Wednesday. The South Korean flag carrier used a cold-chain system to deliver the packages weighing 800 kilograms, including containers and dry ice. Of the 800 kilograms, 208 kilograms is dry ice in special containers to keep temperatures below minus 60 degrees Celsius for some 120 hours – a threshold required to safely transport raw materials f

The number of newly establishment companies in South Korea increased by the most in five years in 2019, with one in four new entities engaged in the real estate business, data showed Wednesday. Last year, the number of newly created firms reached a record 997,000, up 77,000 or 8.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the largest on-year increase since 2014, when such firms grew by 94,000, according to the statistics agency. Of the newly cr

Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for 10 percent of the global feature phone market in the third quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, amid the decline of the sector. Global feature phone shipments declined 17 percent on-year to 74 million units in the July-September period, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research. Samsung had a 10 percent share in the feature phone market in the third quarter, sharing third place with China's Tecno Mobile, a subsidiary of Transsion Gr

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it has signed a partnership with Swedish door opening solutions firm Assa Abloy Entrance Systems to commercialize automatic sliding doors with transparent OLED displays. The product combines LG's 55-inch transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) signage and related software with the automated glass sliding doors of Assa Abloy, the South Korean tech firm said. Such a product can be used in various commercial applications, showing advertisements and oth

South Korean e-commerce company Cafe24 said Tuesday that it launched its Facebook Shops real-time integration service, allowing e-commerce merchants to gain 3.1 billion Facebook users as potential customers. Cafe24 said Facebook Shops allows merchants operating online direct-to-consumer stores to showcase their products on Facebook and Instagram. With a few clicks, merchants can set up their shops on both social media platforms. Businesses of all sizes using Cafe24 can now use Shops. Previousl

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it has signed a partnership with Google on smart home solutions as the South Korean tech giant tries to expand its presence in the Internet of Things (IoT) sector. Samsung said its IoT platform, SmartThings, will support Google Nest devices, including thermostats, cameras and doorbells, starting next month. With the latest integration, SmartThings users will be able to control a Nest thermostat to adjust the temperature, see live camera feeds from outdoor

Unionized workers of Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, entered a partial strike again Wednesday as they failed to reach an agreement with the management over working conditions. Kia Motors and its union have held 15 rounds of meetings in this year's wage talks, but the two sides failed to narrow their differences over overtime work hours in the latest negotiation. Day and night shift workers will each stage four-hour strikes daily from Wednesday to Friday at plants in

Major South Korean companies' spending on research and development (R&D) rose nearly 2 percent in the first three quarters of the year despite weaker sales amid the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. R&D expenditures by 217 large companies in Asia's fourth-largest economy totaled 40.2 trillion won ($37 billion) in the January-September period, up 2.03 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from CEO Score. Their combined sales fell 4.85 percent on-year

Posco International, South Korea’s largest trading company, said Tuesday that it has invested in local laser cutting applications developer Innovated Technology. The two firms partnered through an acquisition of shares in Innovated Technology by Posco International. The details were not disclosed. 　 Innovated Technology currently has a wide range of laser cut solutions used in making tempered glass, as well as those used to protect displays. The firm currently processes ultrathin glass