Reporting and analysis on retail, e-commerce, and consumer trends in Korea, updated continuously by our newsroom.
Hyundai Motor’s new large SUV, set to be unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, will be called the Palisade. According to the carmaker Friday, its new model for the 2020 model year will be revealed on Nov. 28 during a press event at the L.A.…
Incheon International Airport said Sunday that it has successfully tested a self-driving shuttle bus becoming the first Korean airport to do so. The test took place inside its long-term parking lot on Friday, where a driverless bus ran 2.2 kilometers at a…
Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will jointly invest $250 million into the world’s third-largest ride-hailing operator Grab, eyeing shared mobility services as a way to overcome faltering car sales, the companies said Wednesday. Hyundai has already injected $25…
Blue Bottle Coffee Co an upscale US coffee chain operator, says it will open its first South Korean shop in Seoul in the second quarter of next year as the company moves to expand its presence in the Asian market. It said the new cafe and a roastery will open…
KT has chosen Samsung Electronics, Ericsson and Nokia as suppliers of 5G network equipment. As expected, Huawei was excluded from the list. “In choosing 5G equipment providers, the company considered a wide range of factors: the level of technology,…
Korean Air Lines said Tuesday it will transfer most of its data and applications to Amazon’s cloud computing platform as it overhauls its IT infrastructure over the next three years. The planned data migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS) is part of Korean…
A week after Apple introduced its latest iPhone series at stores in Korea, sales are only about 60 percent of those reported for the previous lineup over the same period of time. According to estimates compiled by local mobile carriers, a total of 170,000…
A user tries out self-driving technology from local car-sharing app Socar in Siheung, Gyeonggi on Wednesday. The technology enables users to hail self-driving cars, and is currently being tested, according to Socar. The technology was jointly developed by…
Kakao, the operator of Korea’s top mobile messenger, KakaoTalk, said Thursday its third-quarter operating profit fell 35 percent from last year due to increased costs from new businesses. Operating income reached 30.7 billion won ($27.3 million) in the…
Jeju Air, Korea’s biggest low-cost carrier by sales, said Tuesday its third-quarter net profit fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier due to high oil prices. Net profit for the three-month period that ended on Sept. 30 reached 31 billion won ($27.6 million),…
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in Seoul Wednesday and vowed to increase cooperation with the U.S. company in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Nadella is visiting Seoul this week for the first…
Korea’s smartphone parts industry has been in decline. Squeezed by price-competitive Chinese producers and a saturated market, it is losing sales and workers. The difficulties faced by suppliers just add to Korea’s manufacturing concerns, as profits slump at…
WeWork, a global shared work space provider, said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with Busan to make inroads into the country’s second-largest city next year. The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the southeastern port city on Monday…
Asiana Airlines, Korea’s second-largest airline by sales, said on Tuesday that its third-quarter net profit skyrocketed 181 percent on improved financial status. Net profit in the July-September period came to 47.8 billion won ($42.5 million), up from 17…
Hyundai Motor opened an innovation center in Tel Aviv and invested in an Israeli artificial intelligence start-up through the center, the automaker said Tuesday. Hyundai Cradle Tel Aviv is the third such initiative established by the Korean carmaker’s…
LG Electronics has signed an agreement with E-mart to develop a new type of service robot that can assist shoppers at its South Korean supermarkets. Under the agreement, the two companies will develop what they call a smart-cart robot that can automatically…
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