The head of South Korea's central bank on Friday called for efforts to make certain senior citizens are not left behind as the country moves to update its financial sector.South Korean banks have expanded financial technology, or fintech, in recent years as a growing number of people do their banking on their computers or smartphones without visiting bank branches. (Yonhap)The number of smartphone-based banking service users rose 3.6 percent from three months earlier to 77.3 million as of end-Ma

LG Electronics Inc. on Friday announced the official release of its own mobile payment tool in South Korea comparable to Samsung Electronics Co.'s Samsung Pay.LG Electronics said LG Pay, based on the Wireless Magnetic Communication technology, allows users to make payments by touching their smartphones to regular credit card devices.  A model demonstrates LG Electronics Inc.`s mobile payment tool, LG Pay, in this photo released by the company on June 2, 2017. (Yonhap)Samsung Pay provides the sam

The monthly data consumption of South Koreans using the fourth-evolution network surpassed 6 gigabytes for the first time in April, reflecting the rising demand for video streaming and other services in the mobile environment, industry data showed Friday.According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, local smartphone users subscribing to LTE services used 6.06 GB of data in April on average, up 2.2 percent on-month.Industry watchers said the increase is attr

South Korea’s Netmarble Games is slated to introduce a new mobile game next week for the first time since going public last month, fueling expectations that the new release could help salvage its stock price which has plunged from its initial offering price. 　The Korean mobile game giant said Thursday that it would release “Destiny 6,” a strategic action role-playing game for mobile devices developed by local game developer Alpaca Games on June 7.  (Netmarble)Netmarble has already released a ser

CHANGWON -- Every 11 seconds, newly assembled 24-inch heat-pump laundry dryers are wrapped in boxes and get ready for shipment at LG Electronics’ production hub in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. “Monthly production units of LG Tromm Dryer is about 40,000 this year, a 10-fold jump from a year earlier,” said a senior manager of the Factory No. 2 of the electronics provider. In preparation for rising demand for laundry dryers in Korea, LG, the leader in the garment care electronics market, do

Naver has introduced a new content curating app for mobile devices running on the firm’s newly-released artificial intelligence assistant platform Clova.The Korean internet giant Wednesday announced the release of Disco, which is short for the “discovery” of selected content tailored to individual tastes, according to Naver.  (Naver)Upon opening the Disco app, users can set their topics of interest based on which the app will recommend certain types of content on the web. By clicking “like” or “

An investment forum bringing together virtual reality  companies from South Korea and China, as well as top global venture capital firms will be held at an ongoing VR event in the southern port city of Busan, the government said Thursday.The forum will take place on Friday on the sidelines of the Busan VR Festival 2017 at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said. The event, the first of its kind, kicked off on Thursday for a three day-run. (

After naming Naver’s former Executive Yoon Young-chan as chief presidential press secretary, the Moon Jae-in administration is expected to appoint another major IT industry executive to a key presidential post.Cheong Wa Dae is slated to appoint Jung Hye-seung, vice president of communications at the country’s mobile messaging giant Kakao, to lead the government’s social media and communication campaigns as the presidential secretary for new media, according to local reports Wednesday.Jung, 46, w

Blockchain technology will be used in shipping logistics for the first time in Korea. Samsung SDS said Wednesday it had launched a blockchain consortium for shipping logistics in partnership with local logistics companies, the government and state-run research centers. The consortium’s members include the Korea Customs Service, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Hyundai Merchant Marine, IBM Korea and Ktnet.  Participants of a blockchain consortium for shipping logistics pose for photographs at th

Google is introducing a new advertising solution that can track how well online ads translate to offline purchases, a move that helps advertisers gauge the effectiveness of their digital campaigns while leaving users concerned about their privacy on the web. 　The US internet giant unveiled a new ad management system called Google Attribution and a store sales measuring tool that links online ads to offline store sales based on user email accounts and credit card transaction records, at the Googl

INCHEON – A text message is sent from a boat floating about 800 meters off from another one carrying a group of journalists in the waters about 10 kilometers west of the Port of Incheon on Tuesday. “I am hungry!” The message was successfully received by a hydrophone installed 25 meters underwater by a research team led by Ko Hak-lim, professor of oceanic marine IT convergence technology at Hoseo University. It took about 20 seconds to transfer the message through the long term evolution network

Fintech startup Paycock announced Monday that it would begin supplying Seoul City with a mobile payment service based on optical character recognition technology starting in June. The service allows stores to accept credit card payments through the company’s mobile application, Paygood, making it possible for payments to be made and accepted no matter the time or location of the payment participants. Seoul City will be providing the mobile application to merchants in the Namdaemun and Dongdaemun

South Korea's largest virtual reality event will kick off in the southern port city of Busan later this week to showcase the latest technologies and content as the country aims to become a global powerhouse in the sector, the government said Wednesday.Busan VR Festival 2017, the first of its kind, will take place at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center from Thursday to Saturday, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said. (BEXCO)"This event is aimed at creating various VR content

Smartphones with wider displays including 5.5-inch models have emerged as the new mainstream in the global market, an industry tracker said Wednesday, amid rising demand for gaming and video streaming content via mobile devices. The trend is significant as late Apple CEO Steve Jobs preferred to have smaller handsets for single-hand use, which caused earlier iPhones to maintain a screen size of 3.5 inches. (Yonhap)According to industry tracker IDC, the global shipment of smartphones with 4-inch d