SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — When Netflix’s animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters premiered earlier this year, few predicted that a fictional boy band would ignite a cultural wave stretching from Seoul to New York. Yet the Saja Boys — a group of grim-reaper–inspired idols who appear in the film — have quickly leapt from [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Some of the fashion labels that once defined the wardrobes of South Korea’s Y2K generation are staging a comeback, blending heritage with contemporary appeal to reach both nostalgic older shoppers and trend-conscious younger consumers. Reebok has reintroduced its classic “Club C 85” sneakers in a limited-edition model marking the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The sun had just dipped behind the skyline of Gwanghwamun when demonstrators began to gather, clutching banners, candles, and hastily printed placards. By nightfall, the streets outside the U.S. Embassy had become a stage for simmering outrage. Hundreds marched through central Seoul on Saturday evening, their chants ricocheting off the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — When a popular YouTube commentator recently began selling a “990 won salt bread,” it was more than a marketing stunt. It was a pointed jab at what Koreans have come to call “breadflation,” a steep rise in bread prices that many believe has made the staple disproportionately expensive at home compared [...]
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 [...]