SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – After holding talks with CEOs of credit card companies in July and August, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) publicly disclosed that modifications to payment processing procedures will be implemented. One of the key points of the announced modifications is a system that will allow groups of restaurant-goers to split [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Kakao has announced that it has added QR code identification technology that will enable users to process payments with a simple snapshot to its Kakao Pay service. The technology is currently available on Kakao’s Chinese counterparts Alipay and WeChat Pay. Users snap photos of QR cards in shops and [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — An increasing number of South Korean consumers are buying auto insurance online in search of lower premiums and more convenience, an industry think tank said Tuesday. According to the Korea Insurance Development Institute, 20.5 percent of the nation’s 15.4 million car insurance policyholders filed their applications through cyber marketing [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Almost 30 million emoji sales later, we have some insight into why the Kakao Friends emoji characters are so popular. On September 17, an analysis into the popularity of the beloved emojis by professor Kim Jun Su from Hannam University found a correlation between purchase intent and factors like [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s airlines will impose fuel surcharges on international passengers next month to reflect an increase in jet fuel prices, industry sources said Monday. In the past five months through September, local airlines didn’t impose fuel surcharges, as the average price of jet fuel remained below US$1.50 per gallon. [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The operator of Incheon International Airport is likely to snub calls from Lotte Duty Free, the country’s top duty-free operator, to adjust its rental fees, industry sources said Monday, amid the ongoing diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of a U.S. missile system here. Last week, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s tourism industry has been hit hard by a diplomatic row with China over the deployment of a U.S. missile shield here that has sent the number of Chinese visitors tumbling, a report said Friday. In mid-March, China banned the sale of group tours to Seoul in retaliation [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean content provider CJ E&M has announced plans to release more than a dozen local movies in the international market every year by 2020, a bold move to focus on emerging markets with the South Korean movie industry reaching its saturation point. Jung Tae-seong, the head of movie division [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Middle Eastern tourists accounted for more than 20 percent of big-spending foreign visitors to South Korea last year with their per-capita spending reaching over US$16,000, a poll showed Thursday. The survey on the top 1 percent high-spending foreign tourists, taken by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, showed that [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s dependency on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry for its output is nearly twice the average for major industrialized economies, a report said Wednesday. South Korea’s ICT sector accounts for 10.7 percent of the country’s gross value added, or the value of goods and services produced [...]