US social networking giant Facebook said Wednesday it has partnered with South Korean business agencies to launch a new program to help Korean startups expand overseas with digital strategies leveraging its platform.Facebook Korea and the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency introduced the Made by Korea program designed to offer local startups export-related support.Korea’s e-commerce solution providers MakeShop and Cafe24 as well as digital business training institution Fast Campus

HONG KONG -- Around 14,000 startup founders, investors and media figures from about 90 countries gathered at the RISE 2017 event in Hong Kong on Tuesday to discuss ways to build Asia’s “new economy” with new technologies. Joe Tsai (left), co-founder and vice chairman of Alibaba Group, and Gary Liu, CEO of South China Morning Post, speak at the opening session of RISE 2017 held at Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center on Tuesday. (RISE)Being held in Hong Kong for the third consecutive year, th

Line Corp., the Japan-based mobile messaging company under South Korea’s Naver, has officially stepped into the global game publishing business with the formation of a new subsidiary, Line Games.The establishment of Line Games was announced Monday to broaden the scope of its game business, which had been limited to offering Line messenger as a platform for featuring new mobile games.Line Games will specialize in global game publishing services, which involve providing marketing and operations su

South Korean brokerage firms plan to provide a joint authentication service based on blockchain technology, an official said Tuesday, in the latest move to further strengthen security.The pilot project -- which involves 25 securities firms and five blockchain companies -- is set to begin within this month, said Lee Sang-gi, an official handling the issue at Koscom Corp., the system manager of South Korean bourse operator Korea Exchange. (Yonhap)Lee said the brokerage firms plan to provide full-s

Despite being known for cutting-edge tech hardware, South Korea has long been held back in the area of software by an outdated security requirement that almost every user loves to hate -- ActiveX plug-ins.Like the previous administration, Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in has pledged to abolish ActiveX downloads from all government websites to improve user convenience and catch up with global cybersecurity standards.But the solution proposed by the government -- EXE extensions -- is a similar sy

Information technology spending by more than 150 South Korean financial firms hit a record high in 2016, the central bank said Monday, in an apparent move to meet the growing demands for more wired banking services.A total of 153 South Korean financial firms set aside 5.69 trillion won ($4.94 billion) for IT-related spending last year, the highest since 1992, when the Bank of Korea began to collect related data. (Yonhap)The move came as a growing number of people do their banking on their comput

Global attention turns toward 72-layer 3-D tech, Toshiba deal

LG Electronics Inc. said Sunday that it will adopt its energy efficient and quiet compressors on all new refrigerators this year.The global home appliance manufacturer said its top-of-the-line inverter linear compressor will be used in refrigerators with the exception of one-door units and larger volume machines used commercially. Inverter linear compressor (Yonhap)The company was the first in the world to build a premium linear compressor in 2001 that helped condense and move refrigerants. The

Samsung Galaxy S8, the Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co.'s flagship smartphone, has been rated as the No. 1 smartphone in the U.S. market, industry tracker Strategy Analytics said Sunday.   The industry tracker's analysis of more than 1,500 reviews of the device during the first 40 days following the release of the product on April 21 showed that early adopters have given the Samsung S8 the top rating of 4.57 out of 5.   The reviews were posted on major online sites, including Amazon, AT

South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao and global automaker Volkswagen have partnered to move forward their smart mobility businesses centered on technologies for autonomous vehicles and connected cars. 　Kakao, the operator of Korea’s most popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk, confirmed Friday that its CEO Rim Ji-hoon held private meetings with high-level Volkswagen executives earlier this week to discuss the partnership.News of the private meetings were publicized via a Twitter post from Volks

Among measures being considered by the South Korean government to help reduce the burden of mobile costs on households, the separation of subsidy costs paid by mobile phone manufacturers and telecom companies and expansion of the “blacklist system” on all mobile phones are highly likely to be implemented this year. The two measures were mentioned during the confirmation hearing of Yoo Young-min, the nominee for minister of science, ICT and future planning earlier this week, with the candidate sh

Kakao, the operator of mobile messenger KakaoTalk and web portal Daum, will be relisted on the top-tier Kospi market Monday, after delisting itself from the second-tier Kosdaq, stock market operator Korea Exchange said Wednesday. The Kosdaq-listed information technology powerhouse was granted approval to move some 67.8 million ordinary shares from the Kosdaq to Kospi on Tuesday, 40 days after it applied for an eligibility review. Shares of Kakao have responded accordingly for two consecutive day

South Korean game company NCSoft has received the green light from local regulators to introduce an in-game item trading system to its recently-launched hit mobile role-playing game “Lineage M,” boosting its profitability outlook.Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee on Wednesday granted NCSoft official approval to introduce a new version of the game with an in-game item trading system.With the change, the Seoul-based game firm will now offer “Lineage M” in two versions -- the “Lineag

The number of South Koreans using Internet of Things services introduced by the country’s three mobile carriers is on the rise, providing a new breakthrough for the telecom companies’ stalled growth, according to government data and industry sources Wednesday. Data from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning showed 5.95 million Koreans have subscribed to IoT services as of May, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the total number of subscribers of mobile network services, at 61.45 mill