Naver Webtoon, also known as Webtoon Entertainment in the US, has kicked off the initial public offering process, as it filed a registration statement with the US Securities Exchange Commission for listing on the Nasdaq market. Despite the unsettled atmosphere within Naver due to recent controversies surrounding its ownership of Line, the messaging app popular in Japan, the webtoon unit aims to complete its Nasdaq stock listing no later this year. Webtoon Entertainment submitted the statement on

Industry June 2, 2024

As humans are increasingly associating with artificial intelligence at home and in the workplace, global tech experts gathered Thursday at this year's EmTech Korea to discuss what these technologies might look like in the next decade. Orchestrated by the MIT Technology Review, the annual conference aimed at exploring the fusion of global technology trends and industries took place at the Coex convention and exhibition center in Seoul for the first time. In a panel discussion moderated by Ka

Technology May 30, 2024

Jun Young-hyun, the new head of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, called Thursday for unity among management and employees to retain its leadership in the ever-evolving chip industry. “Samsung’s semiconductor business has 50 years of history and has maintained the No. 1 position in memory. We have secured unrivaled technological assets by overcoming numerous crises and challenges,” he said in his inauguration message posted on the company’s internal bulle

Technology May 30, 2024

Unionized workers of Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that they would go on strike next week after failed wage talks with the management -- the first-ever strike in the tech giant’s five decades of history. "We can’t stand persecution against labor unions anymore. We declare a strike due to the management's attitude of disregarding the workers," the Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union, the largest among Samsung's multiple unions, said in a press briefing held i

Industry May 29, 2024

Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 memory chipmaker, on Friday denied a report that its high bandwidth memory chips had yet to pass Nvidia's tests for use in the US chip giant's AI processors. Samsung said testing for HBM supply is progressing "smoothly" with various global partners. "We are currently working closely with multiple companies and continuously testing technology and performance,” the Korean tech giant said in a statement. “We are cond

Technology May 24, 2024

Leaders of major global powers Tuesday adopted a declaration pledging to promote safe, innovative and inclusive artificial intelligence amid the fast-evolving tech environment. The “Seoul Declaration” was adopted during a virtual leaders' session of the AI Seoul Summit, co-hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The declaration aims to address the broad spectrum of opportunities and challenges posed by the design, development, deployment and use

Technology May 22, 2024

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it has appointed Jun Young-hyun as the new head of its semiconductor business in an apparent move to strengthen its market position amid fiercer competition in burgeoning artificial intelligence chips. Kyung Kye-hyun, who previously held the position, has been tapped to lead the company's future business planning team. The announcement comes as Samsung struggles to compete with rivals in advanced chips such as SK hynix, the market leader in producing high ba

Industry May 21, 2024

Korean IT service provider LG CNS said on Monday it has launched a multi-lingual video conference interpretation solution, called “Orelo,” which can simultaneously interpret up to three different languages in real-time. The solution can distinguish about 100 languages by voice alone and provides simultaneous interpretation in the languages used by the meeting participants. It recognizes the statement in a certain language and immediately translates it into selected languages and prov

Technology May 20, 2024

LG Uplus, one of the nation's top telecom carriers, on Sunday unveiled a new brand slogan “Growth Leading AX Company" to accelerate innovation centering on the artificial intelligence transformation, referred to as AX. The company said the latest announcement came during an internal online session held on Friday to look back on its first quarter performance and share future business directions and plans. During the meeting, CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik noted that it became necessary to

Technology May 19, 2024

Hybe, the K-pop giant housing BTS, has become the first Korean entertainment firm to be designated a conglomerate by the country’s antitrust regulator, as its assets swelled big enough to fulfill the same tougher obligations as other large business groups. The Fair Trade Commission included Hybe along with five other firms in the list of conglomerates Tuesday, thanks to the boy band's enormous popularity and profitability alongside the agency’s active mergers and acquisitions

Industry May 15, 2024

Regardless of the ongoing diplomatic brouhaha, many industry watchers expect Naver to divest its stake in the 50:50 joint venture with SoftBank that controls the Line messenger app and Yahoo Japan. The issue is how much cash it could secure from the stake sale and its business impact in the future. Naver and SoftBank own 50 percent each in A Holdings, which controls almost 65 percent shares in LY Corp., the merged entity of Line and Yahoo Japan in 2019. The market cap of LY Corp. is estimated at

Technology May 14, 2024

Chinese e-commerce giants AliExpress and Temu signed a product safety agreement with Korea's Fair Trade Commission on Monday in the hopes of ensuring and protecting Korean consumers from harmful products being distributed and sold here through their platforms. The agreement marks the first of its kind signed by an overseas online platform operator in Korea regarding product safety. Particularly, Temu's involvement is noteworthy as this is the first time the company signed such an agree

Industry May 13, 2024

LG Innotek on Monday renewed its commitment to nurturing the automotive lighting business as its key growth driver. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the commercialization of Nexlide, the parts maker’s flexible three-dimensional lighting brand for vehicles. The module-based lighting products boast brighter, clearer and more uniform light emission. Starting with the Nexlide-A in 2014, the Nexlide-M began mass production in the first quarter of this year. A total of nine types of Nexli

Technology May 13, 2024

China’s Roborock, the popular robot vacuum cleaner brand, has become a rare success story on the home turf of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Despite the dominance of the two Korean firms in the nation’s home appliance market, when it comes to the burgeoning robot cleaner market, the Chinese runner-up has maintained its top position over the past four years. Last month, Roborock released its latest flagship model, the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, which is capable of both vacuuming

Technology May 12, 2024

The Science Ministry on Friday expressed regret over the Japanese government’s pressure on Naver to shed its ownership stakes in the popular messaging app Line, hinting at "strong and stern" measures if necessary. “The Seoul government's firm position is that we’ll ensure Korean companies, including Naver, are not subject to any unreasonable measures related to overseas business and overseas investment,” Second Vice Science Minister Kang Do-hyun told report

Technology May 10, 2024