Korea's cafe count surpasses 100,000

South Korea’s number of coffee shops exceeded 100,000 for the first time in 2022, reflecting the major trend of daily coffee consumption that has been continually growing in the country since 1999. According to Statistics Korea on Sunday, there were 100,729 coffee shops at the end of 2022, an increase of 4,292 from the previous year. Coffee shops generated 15.5 trillion won ($11.2 billion) in combined sales while hiring some 270,000 workers nationwide. Industry officials say the continuous

June 30, 2024

Korean Air's Q2 earnings to surpass market consensus: report

Korean Air is expected to continue its trajectory with another solid quarter, backed by increased revenue from the company’s cargo business, according to a security firm’s report and industry sources Friday. According to Daishin Securities’ report, Korean Air’s revenue from its cargo business is expected to increase in the second quarter due to high demand, increased cargo and a recent drop in fuel prices. “The April-June period is considered as a low season for air

June 28, 2024

Naver's Webtoon Entertainment gains 10% on Nasdaq debut

Shares in online comics platform Webtoon Entertainment, a subsidiary of Naver in the US, rose around 10 percent in the first day of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday, giving the company a valuation of $2.92 billion. Webtoon Entertainment’s stock first opened at $21.30, and traded as high as $24. The stock price eased off the peak to close at $23. Through the initial public offering, Webtoon Entertainment is estimated to have raised $315 million, selling 15 million shares. The company earlier a

June 28, 2024

SK hynix develops industry's top-spec SSD for AI PCs

SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip-maker by revenue, said Friday it had successfully developed the industry's highest performancesolid state drive chip that can significantly enhance the process speed in on-device artificial intelligence. The product, dubbed PCB01, comes with the capabilities of sequential read and write speeds of 14 gigabyte and 12GB per second, respectively, bringing the performance of an SSD to a level unseen before, SK hynix said. The speeds allow the

June 28, 2024

Naver’s top executives discuss sovereign AI with Nvidia CEO

Naver Global Investment Officer and founder Lee Hae-jin and Chief Executive Officer Choi Soo-yeon met with Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, to discuss strengthening their partnership in the rising artificial intelligence technology, according to the Korean internet giant Thursday. Naver’s key executives, including Lee, Choi and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yoo-won met with Huang at Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California on Tuesday. During their meeting, the executives

June 28, 2024

Hyundai E&C takes protective heat wave measures for workers

Hyundai Engineering & Construction said Friday that it carried out special inspections to ensure workers are protected against heat waves at construction sites amid sweltering early summer heat. Hyundai E&C's Chief Safety Officer Hwang Joon-ha visited one of the construction sites for its apartment brand Hillstate in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday to assess the implementation of the company's "3GO! Program," a manual for preventing heat exhaustion and to ensur

June 28, 2024

Sky Labs’ ring-type blood pressure monitor eyes US, Europe debuts

South Korean health care startup Sky Labs said Thursday it is seeking to debut its ring-type blood pressure monitor, CART BP, in the US and Europe next year following its Korean launch in July to enjoy insurance benefits. The announcement comes after the nation’s Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service recently decided to allow the health care ring to get covered by the National Health Insurance Service. CART BP is the first ring-type medical device approved by the Ministry of Foo

June 27, 2024

Fila Holdings releases 5th sustainability report

South Korean-owned sportswear brand Fila Holdings on Thursday released its latest annual sustainability report, “Your Fila Impact -- Fila Integrated Report 2023,” demonstrating its commitment to sustainability management. This is the fifth publication of its kind since Fila established its “Your Fila Impact 2025” sustainability goal in 2019. Last year, the company adopted its sustainability theme: "Change the game: From deuce to victory." In the environmental

June 27, 2024

Korea-US-Japan trilateral economic consultative group launched

The business communities of Korea, the United States and Japan gathered together in Washington, DC to launch and formalize a trilateral business dialogue, according to the Federation of Korean Industries on Thursday. The FKI, an association for Korean industries, hosted the inaugural Korea-US-Japan Business Dialogue on Wednesday, the first private consultation between the three countries in collaboration with the US Chamber of Commerce and Japan Business Federation, also called Keidanren. At the

June 27, 2024

KCCI embarks on preparing 2025 APEC summit

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a major South Korean business lobby, said on Thursday it launched a task force to prepare for business leaders’ meetings to be held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled to take place here next year. As the 2025 APEC chair, Korea is expected to serve as a bridge between developed and developing economies among 21 member countries, facilitating economic and technological cooperation and capacity building rela

June 27, 2024

SK chief meets with big tech CEOs in US

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is in the US to meet with leaders of big tech firms, including OpenAI and Microsoft, and discuss collaboration opportunities in artificial intelligence. Via social media on Thursday, Chey posted photos of himself shaking hands with Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, taken in separate meetings in the US. "I am traveling in San Francisco and Seattle and meeting with IT leaders every day. They are so welcoming to d

June 27, 2024

SK Bioscience to acquire German contract manufacturer IDT Biologika for W339b

South Korean biotech firm SK Bioscience is to acquire the German CDMO-specializing company IDT Biologika at 339 billion won ($244 million) to further sharpen and diversify its pipeline for global markets. IDT Biologika is among the top 10 global vaccine contract manufacturers, with a corporate value of some 656 billion won, according to SK Bioscience. "We are confident that our comprehensive process development capacity, which we take immense pride in, will have high synergies with IDT's st

June 27, 2024

MBK-backed Medit appoints medical device veteran as new chief

Medit, a leading provider of dental 3D scanners and digital dentistry solutions owned by private equity fund MBK Partners, said Thursday that it appointed North American business chief Han Ryu as its new CEO. “I am truly honored to lead Medit as CEO. Medit's open innovation model and unwavering passion for care improvement perfectly align with my vision. We will accelerate the digital dental revolution with a customer-centric approach,” Ryu said upon his appointment. Ryu has ove

June 27, 2024

SK Pharmteco in talks to sell Virginia plant to Novo Nordisk

SK Pharmteco, a contract development manufacturing organization affiliated with SK Group, is considering selling its manufacturing plant in Virginia to Danish pharmaceuticals company Novo Nordisk, according to industry sources Wednesday. The Petersburg, Virginia plant is an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility that encompasses over 600,000 square meters and has 188 cubic meters of capacity. SK Pharmteco has operated the facility since it acquired it from Ampac Fine Chemicals i

June 26, 2024

[Best Brand] Brand power for evolving-market

Brand power refers to the influence the name holds over the spending behavior of consumers, which can also be used to predict future spending patterns. Merely offering a good-quality product based on decades of expertise no longer entices the fickle consumers. This, on the other hand, also means there is more opportunity for lesser-known products with innovative marketing strategies to quickly advance into markets once dominated by conventional brands. Since 1994, The Korea Herald has been relea

June 26, 2024

JungKwanJang to hit Sprouts Farmers Market shelves in US

Korea Ginseng Corporation announced Wednesday that it has signed a contract with US supermarket chain Sprouts Farmers Market to distribute its health supplement products under its red ginseng brand JungKwangJang in the US. Sprouts Farmers Market is a supermarket chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The company offers a wide selection of natural and organic foods at its 415 offline stores in the US, and its annual sales reach some 9 trillion won ($6.4 billion), according to KGC. “Improv

June 26, 2024

Parties rush to roll out competing chip bills with heftier incentives

South Korea’s rival parties are introducing stronger chipmaking support bills to boost the domestic semiconductors industry, sharing the consensus that existing policies are not sufficient for Korean chipmakers to compete against global rivals backed by massive financial grants. On Tuesday, Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea introduced a bill that involves a whopping 100 trillion won ($72 billion) subsidy program. Kim's proposal seeks to extend an exis

June 26, 2024

Mirae Asset Securities bolsters global expansion with India, Europe push

Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea's largest stock brokerage company, has been achieving feats in global markets through localization schemes coupled with strategic takeovers of local players. As of March this year, it operates a total of 12 overseas subsidiaries, spanning the US, Brazil, the UK, Greece, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. In recognition of Mirae Asset Financial Group’s robust global growth, Chairman Park Hyeon-joo is to receive the I

June 26, 2024

Leadership change looms at SK Square

SK Square, the investment arm of SK Group, is preparing for a leadership change as part of a drastic operational restructuring across SK companies, according to industry sources on Wednesday. The company plans to hold a board meeting in the coming weeks to appoint a new CEO following its current chief Park Sung-ha’s pending departure. Han Myung-jin, former chief strategy officer of SK Telecom, is cited as one of the CEO candidates, sources said. Park, who took office in March last year, ha

June 26, 2024

[Photo News] OB cheers for Korea

Oriental Brewery CEO Ben Verhaert (center, second row), along with former Korean Olympic medalists, cheer for the national team during a special ceremony held at a Seoul hotel on Wednesday, a month ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. OB's flagship beer brand Cass plans to carry out marketing activities throughout the Olympics in Korea and abroad. (Oriental Brewery)

June 26, 2024