Hyundai Motor Co. will voluntarily recall over 25,000 Kona all-electric models for a faulty battery cell component, the transport ministry said Thursday. Hyundai Motor will recall 25,564 Kona Electric models manufactured between Sept. 29, 2019, and March 13, 2020, as a possible short circuit in the faulty battery cell system may start a fire in the pure EV model, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. The recall comes after 13 cases of fires in the model have

Joh Sung-wook, chairperson of the Fair Trade Commission, will look into Google’s purported anti-competitive practice of taking 30 percent commission on in-app purchases. Joh, speaking at the National Assembly’s inspection of the FTC on Thursday, said that what Google does may eventually affect the end-consumer, and that its monopoly of the market calls for a review. Upon being asked whether the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act may apply in the case of Google’s 30 perc

Joint venture Motional to test fully driverless system later this year

CrystalGenomics on Thursday said it appointed Gavin Choy as the CEO of its US subsidiary, CG Pharmaceuticals. Choy has 27 years of experience in researching and developing anticancer and antiviral treatments, as well as four successful clinical trial design applications with the US Food and Drug Administration, CrystalGenomics said. At his new post, Choy will help CrystalGenomics advance its COVID-19 treatment pipeline for pancreatic cancer treatment research in the US. Choy holds a doctorat

Celltrion’s Xolair biosimilar CT-P39 was given the Korean drug authority’s green light to proceed to a clinical phase 3 trial in Korea, the company said Thursday. The company plans to begin the late stage human test of the pipeline first in Korea, and expand to 600 patients suffering from chronic spontaneous urticaria in seven countries. So far, in Australia, Celltrion has gained midterm data for the drug’s safety in the human body from the phase 1 clinical trial that is bei

South Korea’s online shopping volume reached 14.38 trillion won ($12.4 billion) in August, the highest since records began in 2001. Mobile shopping volume was 9.32 trillion won, surpassing by far the money spent through online shopping on PCs. Online shopping also accounted for a record breaking 28.6 percent of overall retail sales, up 7.7 percent from the same time last year. While food delivery services and ready-made meals helped drive sales up as people spent more time at home foll

South Koreans are estimated to have spent nearly 30 hours on YouTube in September, a report showed Thursday, far surpassing other popular social media apps. South Korean users spent an average of 29.5 hours on Google's video-sharing app last month, compared with 12 hours on KakaoTalk, the country's top messenger app, according to data from local market tracker IGAWorks. Local users spent an average of 11.7 hours on global social media app Facebook, followed by 10.2 hours on Naver, South Korea'

　Duty-free sales in South Korea rose for the fourth straight month in August on increased purchases by Chinese vendors, but revenues remained below the pre-pandemic level, industry data showed. 　Combined sales at duty-free shops here reached 1.44 trillion won ($1.23 billion) last month, up 15.3 percent from the previous month, according to the Korea Duty Free Shops Association. 　It marked the fourth straight month of gains since April, when sales fell below the 1 trillion-won threshold for

Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced an earnings surprise for the third quarter of this year, posting the largest operating profit in two years. The South Korean tech giant said in its preliminary earnings report that it would register 66 trillion won ($57.01 billion) in revenue and 12.3 trillion won in operating profit for the July to September period. It was a surprise, since the financial market’s forecasts hovered around 10 trillion won. If confirmed, the Q3 revenue will hav

CJ Logistics, the logistics unit of South Korea's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ, has been considering selling one of its Chinese units, CJ Rokin, a company official said Wednesday.  The move is a part of the company's adjustment of its business portfolio in China, according to the official.  CJ Rokin was set up in 2015 after CJ Logistics acquired a 71.4 percent stake in Rokin, then the biggest refrigerated shipment service firm in China.(Yonhap)

BMW Korea announced Wednesday that the company would soon launch a blockchain-powered reward program called BMW Vantage in South Korea. The reward program is the company’s new membership scheme that will allow customers to collect reward points and use them to pay or get discounts on services that the program offers. Korea will be the first country to launch the new reward platform before rolling it out globally, BMW Korea said. The automaker’s office here is currently running a

The number of 5G network users who returned to 4G network services has surpassed half a million, according to data released by a local lawmaker, Wednesday. The figure -- 562,656 users who downgraded from their 5G subscriptions -- accounts for 6.5 percent of the total 5G network subscribers in South Korea, according to the report by Rep. Hong Jung-min, who belongs to the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee at the National Assembly. The number of 5G network users as of end-

Meditoxin, South Korea’s first botulinum toxin product, was selected by dermatologists and plastic surgeons as the most preferred product for smoothing wrinkles, developer Medytox said Wednesday. In the first issue of the journal Aesthetics, published by the Korean Association for Laser, Dermatology and Trichology, Meditoxin received 51.6 percent of the votes, winning the top spot among Korean botulinum toxin products. Hugel’s Botulax came in second at 32.5 percent and Daewoong Pha

Mercedes-Benz GLB, GLA offer versatile driving and ample space

Hyundai Mobis said Wednesday it invested $25 million in Envisics, a UK-based augmented reality head-up display provider. The auto parts company has been making investments in autonomous driving and electrification over the last three years in response to the growing need for self-driving cars. The augmented reality head-up display, or AR HUD, is a next generation safety convenience feature that matches driving information with the road ahead in real-time and projects it onto the windshield. &