Former Coca-Cola marketing executive talks about working for Korea’s largest conglomerate

[THE INVESTOR] Kakao’s mobile payments service Kakao Pay has logged more than 10 million users on its home turf since its September 2014 launch, the Internet giant said on June 20. 　Running on the immensely popular KakaoTalk mobile messenger, the service has become the first financial technology or fintech service to hit the 10-million milestone in terms of users. 　Currently, there are more than 50 million KakaoTalk users around the world. 　The company attributed the service’s wider adoption amo

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Display will reportedly beef up its production capacity for organic light-emitting diode displays at its manufacturing complex in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province, in a bid to maintain the lead in the growing market for display technology.The Nikkei, a Japanese financial newspaper, reported last week that the company will spend around 10 trillion won (US$8.5 billion) in newly building production facilities for display panels and updating the existing ones this year. A

[THE INVESTOR] The Korea Fair Trade Commission is looking into Apple on suspicion of imposing part of advertising costs on local mobile carriers.According to industry sources, the FTC suspects that local carriers were made to cover part of the advertising costs for the US company’s new products. Apple is also said to be suspected of making carriers cover a part of the costs arising from customer services. The FTC, however, declined to confirm the reports.By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is expected to get a big boost with its recent acquisition of US-based cloud service start-up Joyent but it would be still not enough to compete head-on with the market No. 1 Amazon Web Service, or AWS.Samsung did not reveal the acquisition price for the deal that was announced on June 16. Global Innovation Center, its Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, is said to have led the whole process. After the acquisition, Joyent will be run as a separate entity under

[THE INVESTOR] Display maker LG Display said June 17 that it held a meeting with top officials from the Patent Examination Cooperation Center, a patent office, in Jiangsu, China. At the meeting the company’s chief technology officer Kang In-byeong elaborated on the firm’s business strategies and technologies including organic light-emitting diodes. LG Display’s chief technology officer Kang In-byeong (right).CTO Kang and officials from the patent office vowed to make concerted efforts to bring i

The past month has seen a spate of robotics M&A activity around the world. China tipped its hand to its RIoT ambitions with a USD5bn offer for Germany’s Kuka, one of the world’s leading robotics companies. Kuka has traditionally been a strong player in the industrial robot space but recently has been aggressively moving into the service robotics domain due to the expected massive growth of the segment.Toyota is also reported to be in talks with Google to acquire Boston Dynamics and Schaft—the wo

[THE INVESTOR] Camera module maker LG Innotek’s second-quarter operating profit will likely miss the market consensus due to the lackluster sales performance of its partners that include U.S.-based Apple and LG Electronics, according to an investment report.The Seoul-based LG Group affiliate is expected to post an operating loss of 20.4 billion won (US$17.4 million), far below the average of 10.8 billion won in operating profit forecast by a group of investment firms, according to Hana Financial

[THE INVESTOR] The stake of foreign investors in Samsung Electronics hit the highest level on June 16 in around seven months.The shares owned by foreign investors accounted for 50.7 percent -- the highest since Nov. 2, 2015, according to Korean Exchange, the sole securities exchange operator.Despite increasing fears of the UK’s exit from the European Union, they bought 560 billion won (US$447 million) worth of Samsung shares from June 1 to 16. The share price jumped to 1.4 million won in recent

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is expected to get a big boost with its recent acquisition of US-based cloud service start-up Joyent but it would be still not enough to compete head-on with the market No. 1 Amazon Web Service, or AWS.Samsung did not reveal the acquisition price for the deal that was announced on June 16. Global Innovation Center, its Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, is said to have led the whole process. After the acquisition, Joyent will be run as a separate entity under

[THE INVESTOR] SK hynix plans to launch more energy efficient, next-generation dynamic random-access memory or DRAM chip solutions into the market in the second half of this year. The chipmaker unveiled the plan at a meeting with suppliers held in Shenzhen, China, on June 16. The new solution, called low power double data rate 4 X or LPDDR4X, boasts 20 percent higher energy efficiency compared to the current LPDDR4.Samsung Electronics, the global No. 1 memory chip maker, had already announced th

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been named the most respected brand in Asia for five consecutive years, a recent survey found June 17. Campaign Asia-Pacific and Nielsen recently conducted the Asia Top 1000 Brand survey on consumers in 13 Asian countries. The Korean tech giant has topped the survey since 2012. Its archrival Apple was ranked second, followed by Sony, Nestle, Panasonic, Nike, LG, Canon, Chanel and Adidas. (theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)

[THE INVESTOR] The Korean prosecution has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court in a so-called washing machine row involving Jo Sung-jin, the chief executive of LG Electronics' home appliances and air solutions, after the lower courts ruled in favor of the LG CEO earlier this month.The prosecutors’ office appealed to the highest court on June 15 after the two lower courts acquitted CEO Jo and two of his aides on charges of damaging Samsung Electronics' washing machines at retail shops during th

[THE INVESTOR] The chief of a global industry group that sets ultrahigh-definition technology standards said UHD technology would soon replace high-definition technology as the new norm in the industry. Speaking with Korean reporters in Seoul on Wednesday, UHD Alliance president Hanno Basse said members of the alliance would continue to make concerted efforts to improve the viewing experience of TVs. Samsung Electronics’ SUHD TVs.“It will not take long for UHD TVs to replace HD TVs, probably 5 y

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been actively seeking merger and acquisition deals of start-ups in the past couple of years.The list of its takeovers showed that the world’s largest electronics manufacturer has been focused on making a move into the software and cloud sectors and beefing up its presence in the business-to-business segment. Since 2014, the Korean tech giant acquired nine companies, including video app services developer firm SELBY in May 2014, SmartThings in Aug. 2014, pri