Amid the importance of renewable electricity highlighted in global supply chains, 28.8 percent of large South Korean manufacturers are facing pressure from global buyers to use renewable energy in the production process, a survey from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed Sunday. Regarding the requested timeline by the global buyers, the survey showed that 33.3 percent of South Korean manufacturers were asked to use renewable energy by 2025 while 9.5 percent of foreign companies de

Industry Aug. 28, 2022

Apple Maps, iPhone’s built-in map application, was found to have no labeling of the Dokdo islets in over 20 countries across the world, a South Korean professor claimed on Thursday. Seo Kyoung-duk, a general education professor at Sungshin Women’s University, wrote in a post on his social media accounts that iPhone’s built-in map application in 22 countries had no recognition of South Korea’s easternmost islets, citing his social media followers as sources. The list of

Technology Aug. 25, 2022

The amount of tweets related to Korean content has grown 546 percent over the past 10 years, according to Twitter. “K-content’s growth on Twitter follows the explosive growth pattern of K-pop,” said Kim Yeong-jeong, Twitter’s head of global K-pop and K-contents partnership, Tuesday at the Content Marketing Summit 2022 held at the InterContinental Hotel in Seoul. “Twitter‘s strength, which allowed K-pop to expand its reach over the past few years, is expect

Technology Aug. 24, 2022

Lotte Chemical has emerged as the sole bidder in the sale of South Korea’s second-largest copper foil manufacturer Iljin Materials, according to a local report Wednesday. Global private equity fund operators and foreign strategic investors have pulled out during the bidding process due to Iljin Materials’ high prices and rate hikes, leaving Lotte Chemical as the only bidder, the Herald Business said in an exclusive report, citing investment bank sources. Lotte Chemical on Monday c

Market Aug. 24, 2022

SK Networks has invested 4 billion won ($3 million) in Com2Verse, a metaverse-specialized subsidiary of South Korean game developer Com2uS, to explore business opportunities in the world of metaverse, officials said Tuesday. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to join forces in setting up and strengthening a metaverse ecosystem. The signing ceremony took place in the Com2Verse metaverse platform’s virtual auditorium on the previous day. According to officials, SK Net

Market Aug. 23, 2022

Celltrion has opened a research and development office in Boston to speed up its new drug development efforts in the US while seeking and boosting cooperation with other firms, company officials said Monday. According to company officials, the South Korean biopharmaceutical giant completed the establishment of the Boston office earlier this year. The new US office has been exploring the biotechnology industry’s trends while gathering information on startups and pipelines with investment

Technology Aug. 22, 2022

Naver has become the first South Korean information technology company to join the global RE100 renewable energy initiative to achieve carbon neutrality, the firm said Monday. The RE100 initiative, which is led by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP -- formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project -- commits members to using 100 percent renewable electricity. Naver said it plans to initiate its “2040 Carbon Negative” roadmap, which was established last year, to meet the goal

Technology Aug. 22, 2022

Samsung Life Science Fund has invested $15 million in US biotech Senda Biosciences in efforts to foster core technology of next-generation biopharmaceuticals, Samsung Biologics said Wednesday. Senda Biosciences is a therapeutics platform company specialized in programming to the cell by using the code from natural nanoparticles. The US biotech’s platform includes a messenger RNA engine and the first-ever atlas of nature-derived programmable systems at the molecular level and across all k

Market Aug. 17, 2022

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has developed core equipment required for the ground testing of NASA’s future space observatory project, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday. The state-run KASI has put together a cryogenic vacuum chamber for NASA’s project -- Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, also known as SPHEREx. If successful, the project will mark the world’s first observation of the entir

Technology Aug. 17, 2022

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won discussed shared commitments to global health with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Foundation, SK Bioscience said Wednesday. According to officials, SK Discovery Executive Vice Chairman Chey Chang-won and SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong also attended the meeting in Yeouido, western Seoul. The SK leaders and Gates talked about how they can cooperate to improve global health. SK Bioscience said the company and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hav

Industry Aug. 16, 2022

SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, has invested $250 million in Bill Gates’ small nuclear power reactor developer TerraPower in an effort to cut down global carbon emissions and build up the group’s green energy portfolio, officials said Monday. According to the group’s announcement, SK Inc. and SK Innovation became co-lead investors of TerraPower’s investment attraction plan worth $750 million along with Gates. The Korean companies’ i

Industry Aug. 15, 2022

Samsung Electronics executive vice president Yang Tae-jong said the IT giant’s newest smart wearable device -- Galaxy Watch5 series -- offers the world’s most advanced sleep-tracking technology in a press conference held Thursday in New York, a day after the Galaxy Unpacked August 2022 event. “Galaxy Watch5 is loaded with various technologies including an innovative bioactive sensor that can measure biometrics to help (users) stay healthy. Galaxy Watch5 will be the best partn

Technology Aug. 15, 2022

ANDONG, North Gyeongsang Province -- Hundreds of vials were lined up on the belt of a packaging machine at L House, SK Bioscience’s vaccine manufacturing facility in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday afternoon, as the developer of South Korea’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione is poised to roll out the vaccine’s first batch by the end of August. A few technicians, who were covered from head to toe with sterilized gear -- protective shoes, clothing and

Technology Aug. 11, 2022

The Korea Communications Commission will look into whether app market operators -- Apple, Google and One Store -- are in violation of a Korean law that bans forcing certain in-app payment methods among app developers, the regulatory agency said Tuesday. The fact-checking investigation will begin from Aug. 16, according to the KCC. App market operators that only allow certain payment options or refuse app registrations or updates of app developers that use external links for in-app purchases co

Technology Aug. 9, 2022

The South Korean government will draw up a frequency spectrum plan by the end of this year in efforts to support the growth of new industries such as electric vehicles, robots and urban air mobility, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday. “We hope that the government’s preemptive supply of frequency and policy improvements will serve as a foundation for Korea to lead the global market in various new industries, including wireless charging of EVs in times of digital transform

Technology Aug. 9, 2022