SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Menstrual cups, touted as safer, more durable and more eco-friendly alternatives to sanitary pads or tampons, will soon hit the South Korean market provided companies can successfully pass the requirements set by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. As menstrual cups are categorized as medical products domestically, local [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Global furniture giant IKEA opened its second store in South Korea on Thursday, joining competition with small and big rivals in the region. The new outlet in Goyang in the northwestern outskirts of Seoul is located on the second and third floor of a four-story building. A separate outlet [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean search engine leader Naver announced today that its AI speakers will become available for purchase on its music service website starting October 26. The special promotional deal will offer the capsule-shaped, Brown and Sally-inspired (popular emoji characters from Naver’s messaging service Line) AI speaker with a one-year [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S8 topped the list of the best-performing smartphones reviewed by a U.S. consumer magazine, beating the rival iPhone 8, industry sources said Tuesday. According to the report released by Consumer Reports, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus released early this year took the [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean duty-free shops are still smarting from China’s retaliation against Seoul over the deployment of a U.S. defense shield here with their profitability worsening despite rising sales, industry sources said Sunday. In mid-March, China banned the sale of group tours to Seoul in retaliation against the installation of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The eyes of the smartphone industry are trained on India with Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi all releasing their latest flagship products within weeks of each other. Though the Indian smartphone market has been predominantly composed of mid to lower-tier smartphones in the past, recent economic development has led to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Sales of Lotte Mart, the discount store chain of South Korean retail giant Lotte, in China dropped nearly 65 percent in the first eight months of this year in the face of Beijing’s retaliation over Seoul’s installation of a U.S. anti-missile system, data showed Friday. According to the data [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean fashion companies are accelerating efforts to tap into overseas markets amid a prolonged domestic slump, industry watchers said Wednesday. Shinsegae International Inc., the apparel arm of retail giant Shinsegae, said it is planning to open three more VOV stores in China this year. The company currently runs [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Prices of mobile handsets sold in South Korea are some 2.6 times the global average, a lawmaker claimed Tuesday, apparently as tech giants are reluctant to release more budget models locally. Citing the data compiled by industry tracker Gartner, Rep. Byun Jae-il of the ruling Democratic Party said the [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Imports of electronic cigarettes more than doubled after the government raised taxes on conventional tobacco in 2015 to discourage smoking, government data showed Tuesday. Industry sources attribute the sharp rise to smokers switching to e-cigarettes which are exempted from higher taxes. The government increased taxes on cigarettes by 2,000 [...]