CEO offers rosy outlook for metaverse games, content business

Taxi sharing, banned in South Korea for the past four decades, will be revived in a new way in Seoul this week thanks to the development of IT technology, the city government said Thursday. The Seoul government said cab ride-sharing services can be offered legally in the capital starting Friday, when a revision of the taxi industry development law approved last July takes effect. The new law allows only voluntary taxi sharing arranged through online transportation platforms, the government sai

After record year with chips, Samsung to navigate uncertainties in 2022

LG Display to pay out 20% of profit as dividend until 2023

This is the second installment of a two-part series on Korea‘s Chips Act and controversies surrounding a law meant to support the local chip industry amid heated competition around the world. -- Ed. To tackle a chronic workforce shortage in the domestic chips industry, Korean semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been ramping up efforts to acquire talents even before they become an adult. Under a new law, a Korean equivalent to the CHIPS for America Act, chipmakers

A group of South Korean scientists developed a screening biosensor that can detect COVID-19 variants within 30 minutes, whose test results are as accurate as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, a state-run science institute said Wednesday. The team led by Lee Kwan-hyi of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) developed the highly sensitive and portable biosensor to screen variants through angiotensin-converting enzyme called ACE2. ACE2 is a virus receptor shared by all known C

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top wireless carrier, said Tuesday it will speed up the development of urban air mobility (UAM) services. In 2020, South Korea unveiled its plan to commercialize UAM services by 2025 to help overcome urban traffic congestion by using unmanned drone taxis. Last year, SK Telecom signed a partnership with local defense company Hanwha Systems Co., Korea Airports Corp. and the Korea Transport Institute to develop the infrastructure and aircraft required for UAM service

Korea mired in equality trap as semiconductor chip arms race intensifies

CEOs of Aurora, Volocopter to take part at NEMO: 2022

Samsung SDI’s long-held “premium strategy” with high pricing is expected to face a daunting test in its renewed competition with rivals amid ever-evolving market trends. Until 2020, bringing down the price through scale and manufacturing more powerful batteries were of the utmost priority. However, as the competition heats up with the entry of new players, securing stable profits through partnerships with automakers has emerged as the key trend, which Samsung SDI is refusin

The escalating geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine is drawing attention to whether Washington will pose restrictions on exports to Russia, and the headache that could pose to South Korean electronics giants. The White House National Security Council has informally asked the Semiconductor Industry Association, a chip lobbying group in the United States, to brace for possible actions against Russia if it invades Ukraine, Reuters reported. The Joe Biden administration may attempt to c

South Korea's technology trade reached the second-highest tally ever of $29.9 billion in 2020, down 5.5 percent from the previous year, government data showed Friday. The technology trade refers to the country's international technology transactions, such as the use of patents, licenses and technical services, as opposed to tech products, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. The ICT ministry said outbound technology transfers amounted to $12.8 billion in 2020, compared with imports of

LG Energy Solution will employ four preemptive measures as it can’t afford yet another recall crisis after going public next week. According to market analysts Thursday, the South Korean battery giant will adopt Z-folding technology, manufacture more batteries resistant to gas issues, directly manufacture key safety components and mount ESS with fire-resistant LFP batteries. Z-folding The adoption of Z-folding technology reflects LG Energy Solution’s determination not to repea

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that the Korean tech giant and UK’s telecom carrier Vodafone have launched the first fifth-generation open radio access network site in the UK. Supported by Samsung‘s virtualized RAN solutions, Europe’s first scaled commercial open RAN project built on Vodafone‘s architecture enabled the first virtual call on the open RAN infrastructure between Vodafone and UK government officials on Jan. 11. The deployment marks a milestone following V

Over 34 percent of South Koreans were paid subscribers to over-the-top (OTT) media, or video streaming services, a survey showed Thursday. Paid subscribers to OTTs stood at 34.8 percent last year, up 20.4 percentage points from the previous year, according to a survey of 6,834 people over the age of 13 by the country's media regulator, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC). South Korea's OTT usage rate rose to 69.5 percent, compared with 66.3 percent from the previous year, amid the stay-a