Top executives of van-hailing service Tada, which is owned by car-sharing company SoCar, argued in court on Monday that their operations are fully within the ambit of current laws.They claimed during the first trial held at the Seoul Central District Court that the company has only upgraded an existing business model with a mobile application platform. SoCar CEO Lee Jae-woong and CEO Park Jae-wook of its subsidiary and Tada operator VCNC attended the trial after they were indicted by prosec

China’s imports of South Korean instant noodles jumped fivefold last year compared to 2014, industry data showed Sunday.According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), China imported $100 million (118 billion won) worth of Korean instant noodles last year, up from $15.1 million in 2014. Among all instant noodles imported by China, 50 percent came from Korea -- 40.2 billion packs -- in the January-September period, followed by Taiwan.About 280 million packs of instant

MUTUAL GROWTH/ BANKKB KOOKMIN BANKSouth Korea’s leading lender KB Kookmin Bank has been supporting early-stage entrepreneurs by conducting a mentoring and consulting program called KB Soho Mentoring School.The bank on Nov. 1 held a graduation ceremony for participants to the second round of the program dedicated to those starting a social enterprise.  Some 40 early-stage entrepreneurs have participated in the seven-week-long program to obtain professional skills as a small business ow

GS Energy, the energy unit of GS Group, said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Vietnam’s VinaCapital to build a liquefied natural gas power plant there.Through the collaborative partnership, the two firms will build a megasized LNG power plant with total capacity of 3 gigawatts in the southern region of Vietnam. All electricity generated from this power plant will be provided nationwide via a power purchase agreement with Vietnam’s state-run power company Vietnam Electricity.&n

South Korea’s Pulmuone announced Thursday that its wholly owned US subsidiary has gained 75 percent market share in the third quarter.Pulmuone entered the US tofu market by acquiring the nation’s top brand Nasoya in 2016 to establish nationwide distribution channels and its market share, according to Nielsen’s data, increased from 4.9 percent in 2015 to 69.5 percent that year.　The company said the total sales of Pulmuone Foods USA was around $90 million in 2015 prior to the acq

YEONGJONGDO, Incheon -- BMW Group Korea said Tuesday it will expand its research and development center in South Korea and increase its partnerships with local firms.BMW Finance board member Nicolas Peter told reporters that the German carmaker plans to strengthen its R&D center here by relocating and hiring 13 additional employees to have 29 staff in total.But the company did not clarify the exact scale or funding for the expansion.“We will invest in a new location for our R&D Cen

Hyundai Motor Group has received the green light to begin construction of its new headquarters, dubbed the Global Business Center, in Samseong-dong in Seoul in the first half of next year. Targeting for 2026 completion, the automaker said it has reached a phased agreement deal with the Defense Ministry and received municipal approval.The project was initially scheduled to start construction in December 2016 but it hit a snag for years due to concerns over national safety in cases of air-to-

Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday clinched a $1.5 billion investment deal with the Indonesian government to construct an automotive plant in Delta Mas in Bekasi, Indonesia, which will be the automaker’s first finished car production facility in the Southeast Asian region.The investment clinching ceremony was attended by President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment of Indonesia Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs

British American Tobacco Korea on Tuesday launched Glo Pro that uses an induction heating technology, which is also widely used in kitchens. According to the tobacco maker, Glo Pro contains a battery-powered coil which creates a magnetic field. The heat is generated in the metal tube that holds the tobacco stick called Neo. The technology delivers more robust tobacco taste and faster heating time for the first puff, BAT Korea said. It is also heated at a higher temperature than th

McDonald’s Korea said Monday that it will introduce a sanitation grading system for all its restaurants by 2020, following recent controversy over food hygiene.The US fast food chain said that it has decided to manage store operations with strengthened standards and introduce a restaurant sanitation grading system, in addition to random inspections at its stores conducted by outside specialist organizations. Late last month, a local media outlet released photos of undercooked patties

South Korean consumers found local coffeehouse chain Hollys Coffee to offer the highest level of customer service, the best products and the most favorable impression, an industry survey showed Monday.According to the survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency on 1,031 consumers who had visited the country’s six major coffee chains -- Starbucks, Angel-in-us, Ediya Coffee, Coffee Bean, Twosome Place and Hollys Coffee -- Hollys Coffee received the highest score for overall satisfaction wi

Hyundai Motor’s flagship full-size sedan Grandeur has been positioned as a luxurious car for the older generation and people with high social status in their late 40s and 50s in South Korea.But with the New Grandeur, the automaker has transformed itself, seeking to target those in their early 40s and encourage the older generation to seek a bold and sporty image with their cars, even threatening the market for the new Sonata and affiliate Kia Motors’ steady-selling sedan K7.The Korea

Aionco Korea, a South Korean business-to-business platform of K-beauty products for global e-commerce, was established in 2015. Within four years, the Korean platform that connects local cosmetics suppliers with foreign buyers all over the world has garnered over 500 vendors representing markets in 54 countries. Some of them include China’s Alibaba and individual sellers on marketplaces such as Lazada and Q10. “Our company allows retail buyers abroad to have an easy access to a

Hotel Shilla, a leading hospitality and duty-free operator in South Korea, unveiled the brand identity of its global operations -- Shilla Monogram -- on Wednesday, prior to the February opening of its first overseas hotel in Vietnam’s resort city of Da Nang.To minimize operational risk in the new market, Hotel Shilla will operate the new Da Nang hotel of Shilla Monogram by forging a contract with a third party. It will consist of 300 rooms in a nine-story building. According to the company

Hyundai Motor began sales on Tuesday of its flagship full-size sedan The New Grandeur, which has undergone some drastic design changes since the sixth-generation Grandeur IG was launched in 2016. Under the slogan “Sensuous Sportiness,” Hyundai Motor has applied an integrated-type front grille with a checkered pattern called a “parametric jewel pattern.” The automaker has also used daytime running lamps, headlights that look like part of the front grille when turned o