SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The government plans to unveil a set of measures to open duty-free shops in arrival terminals later this month at the earliest part of its effort to reduce discomfort experienced by tourists and boost domestic consumption, the finance ministry said Friday. The measures would come after President Moon Jae-in [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Major hotels in Seoul have seen their reservation rates rise for the upcoming Chuseok holiday thanks to a new trend of spending the autumn harvest celebration in the nation’s capital, industry sources said Wednesday. Chuseok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving Day and is one of the country’s biggest [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Having started out as platforms to connect restaurants with consumers, smartphone delivery apps are now attempting to make a big leap by becoming providers of total solutions in the restaurant industry. In addition to their existing advertisement and delivery services, these platforms are expanding their horizons to include services like [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s No. 1 mobile messenger KakaoTalk, on Monday kicked off its “unsend” feature that allows users to delete missent messages on its messaging app. Users can delete most mistakenly sent messages, photos, videos or emojis, whether they were read or not by the recipient, within [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Air Seoul Co., a South Korean low-cost carrier, said Monday it has designated one restroom on each of its routes as female-only to meet demand from women travelers. “Our business data shows six out of 10 passengers are women, and the company has responded to requests for women-only toilets [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Mobility, a South Korean firm that provides ride-hailing and driver-for-hire services, said Thursday that it has invested 1.5 billion yen (US$13.4 million) for a 3.4 percent stake in Japan’s largest taxi-hailing service, JapanTaxi Co., in a move to expand its services beyond the home market. The two firms [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Global ride-hiring application operator Uber Technologies Inc. said Wednesday that it will comply with local regulations as it seeks to expand its presence in the tech-savvy South Korean market. “We will not launch products or services in Korea that do not comply with the regulatory framework,” said Barney Harford, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Networks Co. unveiled a new business operation dubbed “Mobility Bank” aimed at providing free commercial vehicle rentals to companies that cannot afford to rent their own. SK Networks is planning to lend 50 of its Damas vehicles (produced by GM Korea) for free to companies lacking corporate vehicles [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Overseas business expansion by major South Korean hotel chains is being delayed for various reasons, industry sources said Monday. Shilla Stay, the business hotel arm of Shilla Hotel, was due to open a new branch in Danang, Vietnam, early this year, but the launch was pushed back to July [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — According to government data, the number of new restaurants is almost the same of the number of restaurants that are shutting down. Last year, the number of restaurants that closed down was the highest in six years in terms of the ratio of new openings versus those going out [...]