SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Business lobby groups in 18 countries forecast the global economy to contract 4 percent this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, a South Korean industry association said Sunday. The 4 percent negative growth outlook is worse than the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of a 3 [...]
SEOUL, June 4 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 30,000 employees at South Korea’s state-run institutions worked from home in the first quarter of the year due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, government data showed Thursday. A total of 31,148 workers at 363 state firms and other public institutions telecommuted in the January-March period, according to [...]
SEJONG, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping jumped 12.5 percent from a year earlier in April, data showed Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted consumers to buy more goods via e-commerce platforms. The value of online transactions came to 12.26 trillion won (US$9.98 billion) in the month, up 1.3 trillion won from the same [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 19 percent in May from a year earlier as strong demand for German vehicles offset weak demand for Japanese ones amid the coronavirus pandemic, an industry association said Wednesday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 23,272 units last [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of accidents involving electric kickboards more than doubled last year, fire authorities in Seoul said Wednesday. The two-wheeled vehicle has gained popularity among youth due to speed and convenience, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak as people shun public transport for fear of infection. The Seoul Metropolitan Fire [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major companies saw their profitability sink to a 10-year low in 2019 amid an economic slowdown, data showed Tuesday. The average operating margin of the country’s 2,000 major listed companies came to 5.1 percent last year, down from 8.8 percent in 2018 and the lowest level since [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean smartphones sales plunged 18 percent in the first quarter from the previous three-month period on the fallout caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak, a market researcher said Monday. According to Counterpoint Research, the domestic mobile phone market, which was expected to post solid growth with the launch [...]
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 6 million South Koreans were subscribed to 5G mobile networks as of April, a year after the country adopted the service, government data showed Monday. The number of 5G users in the nation reached 6.34 million as of the end of April, up 7.8 percent from a [...]
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s vehicle sales plunged 36 percent last month from a year earlier as the new coronavirus outbreak continued to dent demand for cars amid the coronavirus pandemic, with overseas sales hit particularly hard, industry data showed Monday. The country’s five carmakers — Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp., [...]
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Lineage 2M, a mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by South Korean online game maker NCSOFT Corp., was the highest grossing app on the Google Play Store during the first quarter of the year, industry data showed Monday. The mobile version of the mega-hit game “Lineage 2″ was [...]