Samsung Electronics, Korea's top tech giant, suffered "zero" growth in its chip sales in the first quarter of the year, while its U.S. rival Intel posted an 8.7-percent jump, a report showed Tuesday.The divergence has enabled Intel to extend its lead over Samsung in the global semiconductor industry, according to IC Insights.The market research firm released an updated list of the world's top 20 semiconductor suppliers. The 20 companies' combined sales decreased 6 percent on-year in the first th

Samsung SDS and IBM have joined hands to roll out security solutions tailored for energy and utility businesses, the companies said Monday. The strategic alliance is in line with IBM’s efforts to increase its presence in Korea’s security solutions market.Han Sung-won(left), vice president of Samsung SDS’s cybersecurity team, Roman Tuma, the head of the Asian-Pacific sales team of IBM, pose after signing a partnership deal in Seoul on Monday. (IBM)Samsung SDS, which has been producing and managin

LA Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (left) takes a selfie with a baseball fan during a promotional event for LG Electronics’ G5 smartphone at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday. (LG)

LG Electronics said Monday it has decided to spin off two venture firms that have carried out separate projects under the leadership of its chief technology officer. Starting with the two firms -- Acanvas and Infit&Company -- the Korean tech giant said it will continue to encourage the start-up spirit among employees and nurture their creative ideas into businesses. Acanvas’ digital frame (LG Electronics)Acanvas has developed a rechargeable electronics frame that displays digitalized works of ar

After Samsung secures deal, LG and Foxconn cited as secondary suppliers

LINE, the mobile messaging app of South Korean portal giant NAVER, has beaten its rivals in sales of applications available on Google Play Store for the past four years, a global industry tracker said Friday. In the four years up to March this year, the Korean messaging app topped others in the Google Play app worldwide revenue rankings. It took the top three spots due to robust sales of games, cartoon content and avatar apps, according to a report from App Annie, a U.S.-based app analytics comp

The South Korean government on Friday said it is gearing up to roll out a set of cutting-edge information, communication and technology systems to support the successful hosting of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.Automatic translation services, based on artificial intelligence, will be offered in seven languages, including English, Chinese and French, in real time for athletes and visitors to the event to be held in the Gangwon Province town, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Fu

NCsoft, Korea’s top online game developer, reported Friday its net profit in the first quarter had surged 86 percent to 66.2 billion won ($57 million), largely driven by sales growth in overseas markets. Its sales rose 28 percent to 240.8 billion won in the first three months of the year compared to the previous year. Operating profit was also up 69 percent to 75.8 billion won over the same period. The company’s global sales reached 109.3 billion won, making up 45 percent of its total revenue in

Only around 5 percent of South Korean companies make use of "big data" in their businesses, far lower than 29 percent of global firms, recent surveys showed.Among local firms with 100 employees or more, 4.3 percent were using big data, which is large volumes of instant digital data, as of October last year, according to South Korea's National Information Society Agency.The rate was 9.6 percent among those with over 100 billion won ($85 million) in revenue.A majority of companies said they feel n

Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea's auto giant, has unveiled photos of a wearable robot that can be applied in plants, national defense and many other areas, group officials said Friday.The robot that one can wear by simply buckling into it is reminiscent of the suit seen in “Iron Man,” a Hollywood blockbuster movie. It has been developed by major affiliates of the auto giant including Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Rotem Co., according to the officials. Some photos of the robot

CPA Global, a leading intellectual property management firm, on Thursday said it will aim to cater to the diversified needs of its Korean clients with comprehensive services. Announcing its new business goal for the Korean market, the firm said it ultimately hopes to help customers realize their ideas and get more value from their IP via integrated software, services and information. Marcos Antunes, general manager of the company’s Asia-Pacific business unit, speaks at a press conference at Kore

SK Holdings C&C on Thursday announced “Aibril” as the name of the Korean version of Watson, an artificial intelligence system created by IBM. Aibril is a combination of “AI” and “brilliant,” illustrating how the increase in intelligence will prove fruitful, according to company officials. “Aibril will play a significant role in helping start-ups and IT developers create various applications for robots and mobile devices,” the firm said in a statement.SK C&C, the information technology services a

Internet giant experiences growing pains amid business expansion

Korea launched a presidential council on science and technology Thursday to oversee the nation's efforts to overhaul the research and development (R&D) sector.The "strategic" panel, headed by President Park Geun-hye, will serve as a "control tower" and a "trouble shooter" for Korea's overall science and technology policy, said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)Park presided over the inaugural session of the council at her office Cheong Wa Dae, atte

The startup Four Grit, a UX (user experience) analysis company founded only six months ago, announced on May 9 that it would be expanding its product range from the B2B (business-to-business) to B2C (business-to-consumer) market.Four Grit (CEO: Tae Joon Park) provides an automated service that analyzes its clients’ web services, searches for a wide range of problems, and provides them with a report of its findings. It not only analyzes key indices such the inflow and purchases of actual users, b