SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ overseas stock transactions touched a new high in the first quarter of the year on brisk investment in U.S. tech firms, data showed Wednesday. Local investors’ trading of overseas shares was valued at US$128.51 billion in the January-March period, up 96.5 percent from three months earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea, home to major memory chip suppliers like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., ranked second in global chip sales last year, a report showed Wednesday, although it had extremely weak presence in the fabless segment. Total integrated circuit (IC) sales from South Korea-based firms represented 21 [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea reported the first job additions in 13 months in March in the latest sign that the job market is recovering after a yearlong slump caused by the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people reached 26.9 million last month, 314,000 more than a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of South Korea’s major fried chicken franchises jumped in 2020 as people resorted more to food delivery amid the coronavirus outbreak, industry data showed Wednesday. Kyochon, the biggest franchise, saw its top line surging 17.8 percent on-year to 447.6 billion won (US$398 million) last year, and sales of [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Transactions on mobile games in South Korea reached a record high in the first quarter of this year, data showed Wednesday, amid the pandemic-driven online gaming trend. Mobile game transactions stood at 1.66 trillion won (US$1.48 billion) in the January-March period this year, compared with 1.48 trillion won the [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Liquor companies in South Korea performed poorly in 2020 as people consumed less alcohol due to the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Wednesday. Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., a major maker of beer and soju, a Korean distilled liquor, saw its sales shrink 7.7 percent on-year to 2.16 trillion won (US$1.92 [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of automobiles shot up nearly 17 percent in the January-March period from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, on the back of rising demand for premium automobiles, including SUVs and eco-friendly cars. Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 555,430 units in the first quarter, compared with 475,165 [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Netflix saw its revenue more than double in South Korea last year as the video streaming giant enjoyed rapid user growth amid the pandemic, its filing showed Tuesday. Netflix Services Korea Ltd.’s sales last year stood at 415.45 billion won (US$356 million), up 123.5 percent from the previous year, [...]
SEJONG, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean households’ spending on lottery tickets rose more than 7 percent in 2020 despite a record fall in their overall consumption, government data showed Tuesday. Local households spent a monthly average of 590 won (US$0.52) on lottery tickets last year, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of unemployment benefit recipients reached a new monthly record in March, due mainly to the prolonged negative impact of coronavirus pandemic on the economy, government data showed Monday. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government paid job-seeking benefits, also dubbed unemployment allowance, to 759,000 [...]