The Korea Herald

Daum Kakao to launch investment firm for start-ups

Dec 23, 2014

K Venture CEO John Park. (Daum Kakao)Daum Kakao said Tuesday that it would invest 100 billion won ($90 million) to set up an investment company, tentatively called K Venture Group, next month.The operator of the widely used mobile messenger KakaoTalk will aim to create sustainable venture ecosystems like those in the U.S. tech hub of Silicon Valley by actively investing in and acquiring promising start-ups with innovative technology and ideas.“K Venture seeks to discover new growth for Daum Kaka
City takes aim at Uber

Dec 22, 2014

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday that it would further ramp up its efforts to ban Uber, saying the controversial taxi-hailing service was not part of the sharing economy. “Uber does not go hand in hand with the city’s envisioned sharing economy since it does not abide by laws that require transportation businesses to take safety measures for the public. It only seeks profits by connecting riders with nunauthorized drivers,” the city government said in a press statement.The city gove
LG to launch 8-inch LTE tablet PC

Dec 22, 2014

LG Electronics on Monday said it would start domestic sales of the first model from its G Pad lineup to run on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The G Pad 8.0 LTE ― powered by the Android 4.4.2 KitKat ― weighs 344 grams and runs on a Snapdragon 1.2GHz quad-core processor. It has a battery capacity of 4,200 mAh and is available only in white. The price tag for LG’s latest tablet is 330,000 won ($300), according to the company. The device can sync with smartphones and shares the trademark fea
ETRI expands drone operating system for railways, nuke plants

Dec 22, 2014

South Korea’s state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said Monday that it would expand its operating system for drones and helicopters to be used for the operation of trains and nuclear power plants.The ETRI’s indigenous embedded OS software, called the Qplus Air, will be further developed with its partners to focus on monitoring and running the safety systems of railroads and nuclear power plants.It has partnered with KEPCO Engineering & Construction, the nuclear power p
‘Xiaomi is Internet firm, not hardware maker’

Dec 21, 2014

Chief of rising Chinese smartphone-maker underlines software, Internet content
Korea, China to back start-ups using state technology

Dec 19, 2014

South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said Friday that it would support start-ups that create services and products based on technologies developed by state-run universities and research institutes to enter the Chinese market.In a tech event hosted by Tsinghua University in Beijing, ICT Minister Choi Yang-hee said the two countries should collaborate in commercializing technologies created during the research and development stages and spur the start-up industry.As a start,
KT CEO joins U.N. commission for wireless network

Dec 18, 2014

KT Corp., Korea’s largest telecommunications firm, said Thursday its chief executive Hwang Chang-gyu has been named as a member of a United Nations organization for promoting the worldwide deployment of high-speed wireless technology.His appointment to the Broadband Commission for Digital Development came after he became a board member of the GSMA, a global organization that represents global mobile operators, last week. “It is my honor to work for the ITU-UNESCO Broadband Commission, which aims
SK C&C to launch big-data unit

Dec 18, 2014

SK C&C, South Korea’s third-largest IT systems developer, said Thursday that it would officially launch a division providing big data analytic and solution services to clients next year.It set up a task force of some 60 experts early this year to look into the feasibility of big data technology and to develop business models that would best service its customers.It boosted the number of experts on the team to 100, which include data scientists, statisticians, IT systems developers and IT archite
S. Korea, China to launch joint research on '5G' network

Dec 18, 2014

South Korea and China on Thursday agreed to begin joint research on developing a "fifth-generation" ultra-fast mobile network, officials said. The agreement, which also includes joint research projects on biotechnology, new materials and renewable energy, was signed in Beijing between South Korean Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Choi Yang-hee, and his Chinese counterpart, Wan Gang. Over the next three years, South Korea and China will jointly raise 3 billion won (US$2.7 millio
Daum Webtoon goes global

Dec 17, 2014

Digital cartoons to lead in hallyu content, entertainment ecosystem
[Herald Interview] ‘Daydreaming key to creativity’

Dec 17, 2014

It was never easy for Lee Jun to become a professional comic artist.Without proper training or money to hire assistants, he had to master the skills of drawing and storytelling on his own.Lee dropped out of college, but kept his job as an office worker not only to make ends meet but also to realize his lifelong dream.“It was never easy to create webtoons,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald.A self portrait by Lee Jun“I only rested for half a day during the week and spent all my time
Sony hackers reference 9/11 in new threats against theaters

Dec 17, 2014

Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace made ominous threats Tuesday against movie theaters showing Sony Pictures’ film “The Interview” that referred to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The group also released a trove of data files including thousands of emails from the inbox of Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The data dump was what the hackers called the beginning of a “Christmas gift.” But GOP, as the group is known, included a message warning that people should stay away
Samsung loses global smartphone market share

Dec 16, 2014

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. lost nearly 8 percentage points of its global smartphone market share in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to industry data Tuesday, contrasting with Chinese rivals.The world’s No. 1 maker of smartphones shipped 73.21 million smartphones in the July-September period, down 7 million units from last year, the data compiled by market tracker Gartner Inc. showed.Its world market share fell 7.7 percentage points over the cited period to 24.4 percen
KT, Ericsson develop 5G connection tech

Dec 16, 2014

KT, South Korea’s largest telecommunications service provider, said Tuesday that it had successfully demonstrated technology that combined different carriers to offer wider fifth-generation mobile network bandwidths for the first time in the world. The carrier aggregation connection technology works in the heterogeneous network, which connects a large base station with multiple small base stations. By utilizing carriers of adjacent or remote bands, mobile network operators can deal with large da
LGE to unveil quantum-dot LCD TVs at CES

Dec 16, 2014

LG Electronics said Tuesday that the company would unveil new LCD televisions that use quantum dot technology at the International Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.South Korea’s second largest consumer electronics company will showcase two sets of 55 and 65-inch quantum dot-based ultrahigh-definition LCD TVs featuring higher color reproduction capacity.The TVs are embedded with films of quantum dot nanocrystals, which are placed in front of LCD backlights, to boost the color ga