SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A wave of online calls to boycott American goods erupted in South Korea on Thursday after the U.S. delayed the repatriation of roughly 300 Korean workers detained in Georgia last week. Posts on forums and social media targeted Costco, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, with some pledging to cancel Tesla orders [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — At a time when glowing screens compete for nearly every spare moment of attention, most South Korean adults still reached for a traditional paper book last year. A new nationwide survey finds that four out of five adults in the country — 80.4 percent — read at least one [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao’s decision to give users more time to retract messages on its flagship app KakaoTalk has drawn an enthusiastic response, with deletions surging more than threefold in the week after the update. The company said Monday that average daily use of the delete function jumped 327 percent compared with the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — A silent, vacant look from younger workers — dubbed the “Gen Z Stare” — is rattling South Korean campuses and offices, becoming a flashpoint in the country’s ongoing debate over generational communication. The term, which fuses “Gen Z” with “stare,” describes the expressionless gaze of young people born between [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – In a nation often described as a “coffee republic,” South Koreans are increasingly reaching for decaffeinated brews, reshaping menus and fueling new debates about caffeine’s role in daily life. On a busy avenue in central Seoul, a café recently advertised only decaf coffee on a large signboard — a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — With more than one in four South Korean households now raising a pet, real estate developers are racing to appeal to so-called “pet families” by building apartments with dedicated pet-friendly amenities. According to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 28.6 percent of households [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Once a niche Japanese tea, matcha has surged into the global mainstream, embraced by younger consumers seeking both flavor and wellness. From convenience-store desserts and cocktails to luxury fashion and beauty, the powdered green tea has become a cultural and commercial phenomenon. In South Korea, convenience chain CU announced on [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans are marrying later, living more often in single-person households, and reporting higher life satisfaction than in past decades, even as chronic illness and suicide remain persistent challenges, new government data show. A report released Wednesday by Statistics Korea’s National Statistical Research Institute traced sweeping social changes since the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The soaring cost of sanitary pads, a necessity for nearly all women, has become a flashpoint in South Korea, where inflation is squeezing household budgets and driving consumers to seek cheaper alternatives abroad. Major brands such as Bodyfit and Good Feel raised prices by 100 to 900 won (about [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Once confined to military bases and the closets of enlisted soldiers, the “ROKA Tee” — a functional T-shirt emblazoned with the insignia of South Korea’s armed forces — has become an unlikely fashion hit among civilians, tourists, and students. At a military supply store in Yongsan earlier this month, [...]