Articles by Kan Hyeong-woo
Kan Hyeong-woo
hwkan@heraldcorp.com-
[Newsmaker] Kakao CEO nominee resigns over stock selling
Amid mounting criticism over Kakao executives forging a block deal to sell massive stakes they received as stock options, the IT giant’s next CEO stepped down voluntarily on Monday, leaving the company‘s management ethics in question. Ryu Young-joon, the appointee for Kakao’s next CEO, expressed his will to resign amid escalating criticism over the mass sale of his Kakao Pay shares, the IT giant said Monday. Kakao Pay is a payment platform which made a market debut in November
Industry Jan. 10, 2022
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SK becomes No. 2 shareholder of US Center for Breakthrough Medicines
SK Inc. has invested $350 million (421.4 billion won) in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a Philadelphia-based cell and gene therapy firm, to become the second largest shareholder, SK Group’s holding company said Sunday. With the investment, SK Inc. has secured a strong foothold in the US cell and gene therapies market. The transaction came nine months after the holding company acquired Yposkesi, a French developer and manufacturer of cell and gene therapy products, in March. As a
Industry Jan. 9, 2022
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Nexon invests $400m in Avengers directors’ production company
Korean gaming giant Nexon said Thursday it has decided to invest $400 million into US production company Agbo, co-founded by Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Marvel’s global megahits. Through the latest investment, the Tokyo-listed Nexon plans to accelerate the global expansion of its existing and new intellectual property in the film and TV sectors, while Agbo looks to further boost its influence in the global entertainment market by strengthening its production power. Valued at
Industry Jan. 6, 2022
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CJ Bioscience eyes global microbiome market leadership
CJ Bioscience, a biotechnology subsidiary of CJ CheilJedang, has been officially launched with its eyes set on becoming a global leader in the microbiome sector, the Korean food giant said Wednesday. The establishment of the biotechnology firm is part of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun’s earlier pledge to strengthen the group’s wellness business, one of the four growth engines he had vowed to cultivate for the future. CJ Bioscience on Tuesday held an inauguration ceremony with key
Industry Jan. 5, 2022
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Manufacturers, retailers, service providers gear up for full recovery from pandemic
South Korea’s key manufacturers, retailers and service providers on Monday vowed to prepare for a full business recovery from the prolonged pandemic crisis by initiating both technological and organizational innovation to tap into markets that had already gone through tremendous changes for last two years. “The paradigm shift that was brought by the COVID-19 crisis and challenges to overcome it lie ahead of us,” Cho Won-tae, the chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air CEO, sa
Industry Jan. 3, 2022
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Age of robots nearer than you think
For Kwon Ju-hyeon, a 30-year-old freelancer living in Gyeonggi Province, the robot vacuum cleaner has become something he cannot live without after a month of using it. Kwon’s robot vacuum cleaner, approximately the size and shape of a pizza, sweeps the floor with just the push of a button on the remote control. Using sensors and drive routines, the autonomous device makes its way around the chairs, tables, couch and drawers inside the house to pick up dust and small particles on the flo
Technology Jan. 2, 2022
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Loosening of helium tank led to Nuri rocket’s failure: officials
The loosening of a fixture that holds a helium tank of the Nuri rocket blocked the country’s first homegrown rocket from a successful launch, officials said Wednesday. After two months of data analysis, government officials and experts concluded that the degree of buoyancy increase during flight was not sufficiently considered when designing the fixture for Nuri’s helium tank. According to the Science Ministry and Korea Aerospace Research Institute, an unusual vibration from Nuri
Technology Dec. 29, 2021
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[Best Brand] GC Pharma rolls out new high-content multivitamin
GC Pharma has recently launched a new high-content multivitamin called B-max Meta B. B-max Meta B contains 30 milligrams of bisbentiamine that passes through the blood brain barrier to help the human brain’s metabolism, the company said. The product also has high amounts of vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium and zinc to aid people in controlling their health, it added. The new supplementary multivitamin is the latest addition to CG Pharma’s B-max series, which began rolling out in
Industry Dec. 28, 2021
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Newcomers in game industry look to dethrone traditional powerhouses
The landscape of South Korea’s game industry has been shaken up in the past year, as newcomers took the market by storm while traditional powerhouses slipped. Krafton, developer of online multiplayer shooter PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, and Kakao Games, maker of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Odin: Valhalla Rising, saw their sales soar on-year, as the two games gained popularity around the world. Meanwhile, the country’s big three game makers -- Nexon, NCSoft and N
Industry Dec. 26, 2021
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Apgujeong regains luster as popular commercial district
The commercial district surrounding Apgujeong Station -- one of South Korea’s richest neighborhoods -- recorded a daily sales average of 13.6 billion won ($11.4 million), the highest in the country, SK Telecom said Thursday. Using its big data analysis platform Geovision, SK Telecom listed the top 100 commercial districts nationwide. Each area’s sales figures were estimated based on credit card transactions, floating population and level of business concentration. The daily float
Industry Dec. 23, 2021
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Final testing of Korean COVID-19 vaccine begins
Health authorities started the last stage of testing for SK Bioscience’s coronavirus vaccine GBP510 this week, the National Institute of Health said Tuesday. As a home-grown COVID-19 vaccine closest to becoming the country’s first vaccine to be authorized, GBP510 is currently in the third and last phase of its clinical trial. “The last and most important step for the commercialization of the first Korea-made COVID-19 vaccine has begun,” said Kwon Jun-wook, director of
Industry Dec. 21, 2021
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Who gets the blame for iPhone 13 call malfunction?
Concerns reignited among iPhone 13 users subscribed to telecoms service provider LG Uplus on Thursday as they were still unable to receive calls or had calls disconnected despite the latest but a belated software update. Angry customers blamed Apple on online communities for posting a notice about its latest software update -- the iOS 15.2 -- more than a month after they demanded fixing the problem. Both the manufacturer and the mobile carrier have also been silent over the defects for over a m
Industry Dec. 16, 2021
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The robots are coming ... with your bubble tea
Baedal Minjok, also known as Baemin, began mobilizing robots for a door-to-door food delivery service, South Korea’s largest food delivery app said Wednesday. Named “Delidrive,” Baemin’s autonomous driving robot is the first of its kind in the world, according to the app operator Woowa Brothers. The robot delivery service is currently only available in the apartment complex of Alleyway Gwanggyo near Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. The company said Delidrive can freely move
Industry Dec. 15, 2021
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Upbit operator Dunamu vows to go global
Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, aims to become a global platform for all types of exchanges, its chief said Tuesday. “In the future, Dunamu will establish a trading channel for all digital assets to discover new opportunities such as metaverses and non-fungible tokens,” said Dunamu CEO Lee Sirgoo in an online press conference held on its recently-launched metaverse platform 2ndblock. “Taking a step further from being a platform f
Industry Dec. 14, 2021
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Samsung Biologics to manufacture AstraZeneca’s Evusheld
Samsung Biologics will begin manufacturing AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 antibody combination Evusheld by expanding their earlier deal, officials said Tuesday. The newly expanded deal is estimated at $380 million, up about $50 million from the initial contract of the two pharmaceutical giants’ long-term strategic partnership signed in September 2020. Evusheld, formerly known as AZD7442, is a combination of two long-acting antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab. It has the effect of prev
Industry Dec. 14, 2021
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