SEJONG, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Commission fees given by duty-free shops to travel agencies increased sharply to reach nearly 1 trillion won (US$872.4 million) last year on heated competition to attract more foreign travelers, customs data showed Thursday. Twenty-two local duty-free operators paid a combined 967.2 billion won to tourist agencies and guides in [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – Apple Inc. emerged as the leader in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, beating its South Korean archrival Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Wednesday. The U.S. giant sold about 78.3 million smartphones during the October-December period, up 18 percent from a year earlier, the [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Despite Samsung apologizing once again to its Chinese customers for the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco during a press conference last week revealing the detailed causes behind the device’s tendency to catch fire, locals are still expressing discontent, making Samsung’s future operations in China uncertain, especially given that it has [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The Musterbag Smart Edition is a backpack that uses IoT sensors so parents can check if their children arrive safely at school, and then back home in the afternoon. The bag was first introduced in early December in a joint venture between telecommunications company SK Telecom and children’s bag [...]
SEJONG, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s customs agency said Wednesday that it has caught illegal imports in 89,336 cases in 2016, up 8 percent from a year earlier. The Korea Customs Service said it seized imports of foods that contain harmful substances in 9,033 cases, up 315 percent from 2,867 cases in 2015. [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2016 jumped 50.11 percent on year, thanks to rising prices of semiconductors and display panels. Operating profit, which excludes income from subsidiaries, stood at 9.2 trillion won (US$7.89 billion) for the October-December period last year, compared [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – “Thinner” and “lighter” have long been the mantra for laptop manufacturers. The focus is now shifting to battery power in Korea, with two of the country’s largest laptop makers – Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics – highlighting the battery capacity of their latest computers. Samsung added last month a [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – China has banned imports of South Korean air purifiers, industry sources said Friday, amid growing concerns Beijing is retaliating against Seoul’s move to install an advanced U.S. missile defense system. Air purifiers made by LG Electronics Inc., Shinil Co. and two other South Korean firms were listed as disqualified [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean conglomerate Lotte will likely relinquish its golf club in the rural town of Seongju so the land can be used for the deployment of a U.S. air missile defense system, informed sources said Friday, despite possible repercussions for its business in China. According to officials from Lotte [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – There is a sense of hierarchical bipartisanship when one visits a Korean department store; there are the VIPs, and the non-VIPs. Korean department stores have been expanding their VIP programs, targeting specifically the “haves” by either lowering the purchase requirements for the programs or introducing more VIP “levels” to [...]