In this day and age, a flood of new products and technologies bombard consumers with millions of choices daily, leading to word-of-mouth marketing and social media becoming influential tools for the promotion of products. In the past, brands were mainly built on accumulated decades of business, but modern-day brands are more about unique technologies and services that leave a strong impression on potential customers.  The current market environment also underscores the foundation of a stron

Vornado Korea, which has imported air circulators from the US since 2007, continues to thrive in the Korean market. The US-based company Vornado dates back to 1945 in Kansas, where two men experimented with different designs to improve airplane propellers. Through continuous research and development, the propeller designs were applied to household fans and the Vornado Air Circulator was developed.Vornado has revolutionized fans used at homes through its product’s energy efficiency and prec

South Korean company Coway introduced the CIROO (Coway Intensive Reserve Osmosis) direct water purifier on June 18, moving to change the concept of water purifiers.The new product aims to resolve consumers’ dilemma of choosing between functions of a filter and a direct water purification system, the company explained.Originally, reserve osmosis membrane filters have less purified water capacity per length of use due to the dense and detailed nature of the filtering function compared to hol

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump took credit Thursday for turning the US free trade agreement with South Korea into a "wonderful deal" for both countries.Trump was referring to a revision the two sides made to the Korea-US trade deal in March, which calls for further opening South Korea's auto market to the United States."We've renegotiated the deal, and subject to signing -- I always say subject to signing because lots of things happen ... But we made a new deal with South

South Korea‘s financial technology startup True Short unveiled Thursday a service that tracks information related to institutional short sellers’ activities.The service, run on paid subscriptions on True Short online platform, aims to enable retail investors to gain access to information exclusive to institutional investors and take pre-emptive actions against a possible fall in stock price due to institutional short-selling practice.The service offers a listed share‘s outstand

The chief of South Korea's corporate watchdog said Thursday that his agency will get tough on any unfair business practices."Unfair terms of contracts for subcontractors and any other business practices, such as an unreasonable cut in selling prices, would be targeted by our investigation," Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo said during a meeting with heads of ship-parts suppliers in Busan.The FTC has been stressing that it will promote fair business practices and take stern me

Warnings have been raised against the increasing reliance of President Moon Jae-in’s government on fiscal spending to carry on what critics say is a mixture of misguided policies.Economists worry that the Moon administration’s eagerness to increase fiscal expenditure as a panacea for curing economic problems, which have been partly exacerbated by its policies, will hurt the country’s long-term fiscal soundness.Since taking office in May last year, Moon has pushed for income-led

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Wednesday it will inspect three banks alleged to have overcharged borrowers for more loans by incorrectly calculating the interest. On Tuesday, KEB Hana Bank, Citibank Korea and Kyongnam Bank were revealed to have taken a combined 2.7 billion won ($2.4 million) in revenue from information input errors such as omitting the borrowers’ income or collateral in lending rate calculations. The Financial Supervisory Service said they will be first lookin

Opposition parties have ratcheted up their criticism against the government's drive for "income-driven growth" following their crushing defeat in the recent local elections, calling for an outright review on the policy.The ruling Democratic Party is defending the economic policy, which calls for a virtuous cycle of increasing household income and spending, and the need for an expansionary fiscal policy to buttress it.The South Korean economy heavily depends on conglomerates-led exports

The government called off a scheduled meeting on deregulation at the last minute on Wednesday, prompting suspicions over the whereabouts of President Moon Jae-in who had been set to attend the meeting.The meeting was originally scheduled to be held at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae from 3 p.m."Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon suggested the meeting be pushed back,"a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, noting the prime minister cited a lack of adequate preparations for the meeting de

South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon stressed Tuesday the need for a soft landing of a policy to shrink the workweek to 52 hours from 68 hours, amid overflowing reports of confusion at workplaces on how to manage the shorter hours.The 52-hour workweek is to go into effect starting Sunday, but the government and the ruling Democratic Party agreed to introduce a six-month grace period for the new scheme last week. “The government will set up a grace period until the end of this y

The Korea Exchange, South Korea‘s sole market operator, has moved to boost investor attention to small cap shares through a new web portal launched in May.The core function of the web portal, dubbed “Smile,” is to release technology analysis reports of small-cap companies that have little analyst coverage. Analysts in Korea have found it hard to cover all listed shares -- the number of which amounts to 2,000 in the top-tier Kospi and the second-tier Kosdaq combined. By tea

An emerging trade war between the US and China is weighing on Korea’s exports, which have been losing traction this year.A 25 percent US tariff on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods is set to take effect from July 6, with further duties on another $16 billion in imports from China under consideration. China has pledged to slap tariffs of the “same scale and intensity” on US imports.President Donald Trump has threatened that Beijing’s countermoves would lead the US to impo

The amount of payments made electronically in South Korea continued to rally in the first quarter of this year as a growing number of people are using mobile shopping and remittance services, central bank data showed Monday.The daily average amount of electronic financial transactions came to a record 581.53 billion won ($521.6 million) in the January-March period, up 13.2 percent from a quarter earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.The quarterly figure has broken records over th

Lawmakers have proposed bills to regulate peer-to-peer lending and cryptocurrencies, but the bills have gained little momentum in the National Assembly, industry watchers said Monday.Rep. Min Byung-doo of the ruling Democratic Party and Rep. Kim Su-min of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party filed two separate bills to regulate P2P lending firms in July last year and in February, respectively.With the bills still pending in the National Assembly, financial authorities have been struggling to t