SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ use of internet banking services soared 18 percent on-year in 2021 as customers preferred non-contact services amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Monday. The daily use of online banking services, including mobile banking, reached 17.32 million cases last year, up from 14.68 million a year [...]
SEJONG, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The average income of singers and actors declined but that of athletes increased in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The combined income of the nation’s 8,068 singers who reported business income in 2020 totaled 261.7 billion won (US$217 million), with an average per-capita [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — On her way home from work, Lim Kyung-nan, a mother of two living in Anyang, occasionally borrows books from a smart library, an unmanned book-rental machine, usually installed at subway stations. “I usually can’t go to community libraries since I leave my work in the late evening,” Lim said. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The cleanliness and sanitation of restaurants are influencing consumer choice as much as taste after the pandemic outbreak, a survey showed Sunday. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Trade Corp. (aT) of 1,341 consumers between 20 and 69 years of age who ate out more [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Hate crimes are on the rise in South Korea following the coronavirus outbreak, a study showed Monday. A paper recently published in the Korean Journal of Public Safety and Criminal Justice analyzed 31 hate crimes that occurred between 2006 and December 2019 and 39 hate crimes that occurred between [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Card spending in South Korea rose more than 10 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, industry data showed Friday. Spending made with credit, debit and prepaid cards stood at about 977 trillion won (US$811 billion) last year, up 10.3 percent from the same quarter [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The ratio of the self-employed and other nonwage workers in South Korea touched an all-time low in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy had 6.52 million unsalaried workers as of the end of December last year, marking the 23rd consecutive year of decline, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Recent statistics show that the number of criminal trespass cases has declined for residential houses but increased for unmanned stores due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an analysis of the big data on 850,000 clients by security solution provider S-1 Corp., the number of criminal [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Drug smuggling caught by South Korea’s customs agency hit a record high last year as trafficking via non-contact delivery means shot up amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The Korea Customs Service said it confiscated a total of 1,272 kilograms of drugs in 2021, up 757 percent from [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The changes in government policy against COVID-19 have influenced consumption patterns. Sales of hangover helpers and travel kits rose by 28.4 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively, in November of last year, following the introduction of the government’s ‘With Corona’ policy, according to the convenience store chain CU. In contrast, [...]