Ericsson-LG CEO Patrick Johansson (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Ericsson-LG, a network equipment and solution provider, will expand its business in South Korea to mobile and media services, taking advantage of the country’s fast internet speed, said the company’s CEO Patrick Johansson. The company, established between Sweden’s largest network business and LG Electronics in 2010, is now in talks with leading mobile businesses such as Naver and Kakao in order to help improve the efficiency of mo

Korean parts firms Samsung Electro-mechanics and LG Innotek’s profits have been buoyed by growing demand for dual camera phones in the global market, industry watchers said on Thursday. A dual-camera smartphone is a handset sporting two rear camera lens that typically work together to provide unique photography with different view angles and focuses. LG Innotek, which produced the world’s first dual cameras in 2011, went ahead of its rivals after becoming a sole supplier to Apple’s iPhone series

South Korea announced plans Thursday to ease regulations on three industries -- artificial intelligence, virtual reality and financial technology, or fintech -- as part of the government's aggressive deregulation drive to find a new growth engine.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning reported a set of deregulation measures to Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn to deregulate the three sectors amid the fast-paced industrial transformation, dubbed the "fourth industrial re

More than half of Internet users in South Korea said they were unhappy with advertisement banners and links on screen when they use search engines, a report said Thursday. According to a report by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, 55.9 percent of Naver users that browse mostly on PCs said they are unhappy with the ads, with 54.6 percent of those who use Daum on desktops answering the same.  (Yonhap)The survey was carried out in November last year, based on 1,525 Internet porta

South Korean startup Pharos Vaccine Inc. said Thursday it may supply a homegrown vaccine against food and mouth disease next year as the country is grappling with the worst outbreak of the animal disease in seven years.South Korea is suffering from a serious undersupply of FMD vaccines as the country is hit by the simultaneous outbreak of type A and type O viruses. Since the first outbreak on Feb. 5, nearly 800 cows have been culled so far, raising concerns that the animal disease is spreading n

South Korean internet technology giants Naver and Kakao have begun to incorporate artificial intelligence “chatbots” into their platforms, seeking to become key stakeholders in the fast-growing online commerce sector. Chatbots are AI-powered computer programs that can mimic human conversations and react to spoken or written prompts to deliver services. Global IT firms like Facebook and Google have already introduced chatbots for businesses on its mobile messengers which can handle tasks such as

Launch of Android Pay likely to come earlier than Apple Pay.

A virtual reality cafe opened Wednesday in western Seoul in partnership between a PC manufacturer and VR content provider who are collaborating on a joint project for business expansion.The cafe, named VRIZ, opened near Hongik University campus that has one of the highest foot traffic in the capital. It will be operated by PC maker Jooyon Tech Co. with YJM Games supplying VR games and other related contents. (Yonhap)While there are other VR-focused businesses in major cities that set up shop fro

A state-funded research institute said Wednesday that it has developed new anti-counterfeit technology to create unforgeable laser-induced patterns that can be applied to various products such as watches and checks.The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said it has successfully engraved the micro-sized patterns with a hole that is smaller than 10 micrometers by using two laser beams. (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning)So far, it was virtually impossible to create such micro-si

Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Wednesday cautioned against any negligence in investing for the future, underscoring the need for South Korea to capitalize on its technological edge to nurture new growth engines.During a joint session held by the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology, and the state science and technology strategy panel, Hwang also reiterated that the government has to further strengthen support for startups through a policy initiative that

South Korea announced a package of measures Wednesday to utilize information and communications technology  and science technology to revitalize the country's economy suffering from weak exports and flagging manufacturing sector.Under the measures discussed in a meeting presided over by Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, and announced by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the government will make use of the latest ICT to secure new growth engines.  Acting President

South Korean Internet users have increasingly streamed content instead of downloading them though wireless services, government data showed Wednesday, mainly on the back of the introduction of a long-term evolution service based on fourth-generation wireless technology.Internet traffic from video streaming services and video-on-demand, such as Youtube and Netflix, accounted for 56.1 percent of the total wireless data traffic in December 2016, compared with 45.1 percent tallied in December 2013,

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been rated the country’s “most promising” information technology company, according to a research report Tuesday.　According to a nationwide survey conducted by Seoul-based market research provider Consumer Insight, Kakao ranked No. 1 in terms of the most promising IT company. Kakao’s forays into new services beyond its flagship mobile messenger -- including taxi hailing, navigation, financial technology as well as beau

South Korea’s Netmarble Games, which has faced criticism for the heavy workload imposed on its employees, has kick-started efforts to reform its work culture, the company announced Tuesday.　The move came amid both internal and external calls to improve the working conditions of the country’s biggest mobile game company.　From Monday, Netmarble officially began implementing new measures aimed at improving the company’s work environment, such as banning overtime work and unpaid work on weekends as

The government here will invest about 100 billion won ($87.64 million) into empirical research on various energy technologies this year, officials said Tuesday.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled the investment plan during a meeting with energy experts at a regional office of Korea Electric Power Corp. in Seoul. (Yonhap)The plan calls for increasing the government's spending on empirical research into new energy technologies by 24 billion won from last year to about 100 billion w