IT solutions developer SK Planet said Monday it has supported around 250 small and medium enterprises to tap into global markets through its e-commerce platform 11st in the second half of last year. The logo of SK Planet, the operator of e-commerce platform 11st. (SK Planet)The SK Group affiliate has been running its e-commerce platform 11st with different names in global markets -- n11 in Turkey, Elevenia in Indonesia, and 11Street in Malaysia.The company ran a Korean zone on the e-commerce web

Samsung SDI shareholders on Monday agreed to spin off the company’s chemicals business into a new affiliate called SDI Chemical, that will be sold to Lotte Chemical within the first half of this year.  Samsung SDI CEO Cho Nam-seongThe battery-making unit of Samsung Group said it will focus more on its flagship business to cater to electric vehicles. Samsung SDI CEO Cho Nam-seong told shareholders the company would invest 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) into the electric vehicle battery business ov

SK Telecom said Sunday it has teamed up with Cisco Systems International, the U.S. networking giant, to develop new solutions for the Internet of Things technology that connects all machines via the Web. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at SKT’s Seoul headquarters on Friday.  The new solutions would combine SKT’s ThingPlug, an IoT platform that allows different devices and mobile apps to work together, and Cisco’s infrastructure application technology Fog Computing that off

Pantech, the nation’s smallest smartphone-maker, which found a new owner while on the verge of bankruptcy last year, is poised to return to the market with a new phone in the summer. The new phone, the first new model since the Vega Pop-up Note phablet in November 2014, aims to target the fast-growing budget-phone market, the company’s CEO Moon Ji-wook said Friday. “This is the right timing to enter the budget phone market. We will be betting on phones that big companies such as Samsung and LG w

Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong on Friday poses at a college classroom in Daejeon together with a group of students. The Samsung heir made a surprise visit to Chungnam National University to encourage teachers and students who were participating in the company’s Dream Class programs that tour rural areas every year to offer classes. (Samsung Electronics)

Fake batteries are becoming a headache for Korean battery-makers Samsung SDI and LG Chem, after recent hoverboard fire and explosion cases in the U.S. reportedly involved counterfeit batteries bearing Samsung and LG logos. More than 300 counterfeit hoverboards worth around $94,000 were seized in Miami by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection last week, according to a news report by Sun-Sentinel.  A person rides a hoverboard on the street. (Yonhap)The counterfeit hoverboards, which were shipped

Tech giant LG Electronics said Friday that it topped the U.S. front-loading washing machine market for the ninth consecutive year in 2015.Citing a report compiled by market research firm Stevenson Company, the Seoul-headquartered electronics giant said it took the top spot in the U.S. market last year with its market share exceeding 25 percent for three straight years, last year at 25.1 percent.  A staffer at a Fry‘s Electronics store in Nevada explains the features of LG Electronics’ Twin Wash

(KOTRA)South Korea's spending on information technology products and services is expected to grow 2.4 percent in 2016 from the previous year, data showed Friday.Asia's fourth-largest economy is expected to spend 86.1 trillion won ($71.4 billion) on IT products and services this year, according to the data compiled by industry tracker Gartner Inc.Of the amount, expenditures on fixed-line and mobile network services are estimated to account for 40.8 trillion won, followed by spending on smartphone

BUDGET HANDSET GAINS STEAM -- Mobile carrier SK Telecom said Friday that its 5.5-inch budget smartphone Sol, which comes with a price tag of 399,300 won ($332), has attracted around 10,000 preorders for just three days since Tuesday this week. (SKT)

Semiconductor-maker SK hynix said Friday it has launched a committee to support and compensate its workers who developed life-threatening diseases, including various cancers and leukemia, while working at the firm’s chip factories.The establishment of the support and compensation group is in line with the firm’s efforts to comply with proposals made last November by an inspection committee for workplace safety and health at the chipmaker, consisting of 11 medical specialists, scholars, industry

Recently, more and more criminals are using ransomware, a type of malware that restricts user’s access to a computer system or encrypts data(office files, pictures, videos etc.), then demands payment to remove the ransomware and restore the files or systems. AhnLab, Korea’s leading cybersecurity company, said in its recent report that both the number of 3 major ransomwares, CryptoLocker, CryptoWall and Teslacrypt, and the number of PCs those hit by them in Korea is growing fast from September to

South Korea's ICT ministry said Friday it will determine whether to license the country's fourth mobile carrier next week after months of deliberation on candidates.The three candidates passed an initial government assessment in November in line with the ministry's plan to inject more competition into the market, which is currently dominated by only three -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp., and LG Uplus Corp. The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, which oversees the country's communications

South Korea tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. sold the largest number of so-called smart connected devices in the world in the first nine months of 2015, data showed Friday. Samsung Electronics sold 266 million smart connected devices -- a collective term for smartphones, tablets and personal computers -- worldwide in the January-September period, accounting for 19.3 percent of the total, the International Data Corporation said. U.S. tech behemoth Apple ranked second, selling 205 million iPhone

 A sense of frustration seems to be pervading the halls of Samsung Electronics as incentives for the year 2015, dubbed the overall performance incentive, are anticipated to plunge due largely to its below-par business performance last year.The OPI reward program pays up to 50 percent of the annual salaries of workers within the range of 20 percent of the firm’s excess profits. The Samsung logo at Samsung Electronics’ head office in Seoul. (Yonhap)Samsung also runs their target achievement incent

SK Planet, owned by South Korea’s largest telecom carrier SK Telecom, said Thursday that it will sell off its 15 percent stake in Loen Entertainment, the operator of MelOn, Korea’s top music-streaming, to the new owner Kakao. The shares were valued at 368 billion won ($302 million). The SK Planet logo. (SK Planet)The company said that the decision was made during a directors’ meeting in the day as part of its business restructuring that has continued since last year to pour more resources into p