South Korean internet giant Naver said Friday it will launch its own generative pretrained transformer, or GPT, for search functions by the end of June, as OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has been taking the tech world by storm. “We are gearing up to handle new search trends, such as the generative AI that is gaining a lot of attention now. And we plan to introduce our own upgraded version of SearchGPT in the first half of this year,” Chief Executive Officer Cho

South Korean auto parts manufacturer SNT Dynamics said Monday it signed an export deal with Turkish commercial and military vehicle manufacturer BMC to supply automatic transmissions to produce tanks for the Turkish government. BMC is the firm in charge of delivering 1,000 Altays, a Turkish battle tank, to the government starting from this year under a Turkish-Qatari partnership. The Altay project, pushed forward by the Turkish government, has faced supply issues in the past. BMC has been seekin

South Korea's financial regulator said Friday that local credit card firms can introduce Apple Pay, the long-awaited mobile payment service of US tech giant Apple Inc., as they have followed relevant procedures. There have been reports for months that Hyundai Card Co., a local credit card unit of Hyundai Motor Group, is in talks with Apple over the launch of Apple Pay that allows customers to make payments using iPhones and other Apple devices. Market watchers initially expected the service

Government that once encouraged entrepreneurs to produce masks now provides no guidelines for struggling companies

Sales of cosmetics products have seen a surge over the past week after the nation’s mask-wearing mandate was lifted here, according to data compiled by Shinsegae International, a local importer of foreign beauty brands, Thursday. US luxury makeup brand Hourglass posted a 149 percent jump in sales here from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 right before and after eased masking rules, according to Shinsegae International. For the whole month of January, sales more than doubled compared to a year ago. The co

Korean Air said Thursday it is starting a “self-service” bag drop for domestic flights at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, as part of a growing trend within the global aviation industry but the first of its kind in South Korea. The air carrier said it plans to expand the service in phases after a six-month trial operation at the airport.

SK Bioscience has obtained product approval for its flu vaccine, Sky Cellflu, from Chile's health authorities, the first green light in a Latin American country, the South Korean vaccine developer said Thursday. Starting with Chile, SK Bioscience is planning to expand the number of countries licensed for Sky Cellflu in Latin America. Chile's drug approval is widely considered a regional standard among Latin American countries, the company added. Chile is the 10th country to have approv

Tech giants join forces to create renewed alliance on XR technology

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo delivers a speech during the investor conference KB Investor Insights 2023, held via the financial giant's metaverse platform on Tuesday. During the event, the chairman pledged to boost investor profitability by upgrading expertise and risk-management know-how. (KB Financial Group)

Amid severe downturn in global chip market, firm reports first quarterly operating loss in decade

South Korea reached a record-high monthly trade deficit of $12.69 billion in January, mainly due to weakening global demand for semiconductors, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday. While outbound shipments fell 16.6 percent on-year to $46.27 billion in January -- the largest drop in three years -- imports slipped 2.6 percent on-year to $58.96 billion. This figure broke the previous record high of $9.43 billion in August last year. It is also

South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. announced Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Monnis Group, a Mongolian industrial holding conglomerate, for a joint business venture into the rare earth minerals industry. This comes after another memorandum previously signed on Jan. 26 between KT and the Mongolian government for the supply of various mineral resources, including rare earth elements. Following this new agreement, KT is now able to utilize Monnis Group&rs

KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo delivers a speech during the investor conference KB Investor Insights 2023, held via the financial giant's metaverse platform on Tuesday. During the event, the chairman pledged to boost investor profitability by upgrading expertise and risk-management know-how.

Starbucks Korea, the nation’s No.1 specialty coffee chain, said Wednesday that the cumulative users of its customer membership "Starbucks Rewards" has recently hit the 10 million mark. The figure is twice as high as the 4.1 million members of Twosome Place and the 6 million of Ediya Coffee -- the second and third-largest coffee franchises in Korea by sales. Having started the membership service in September 2011, the company said more than 100 people signed up as Starbucks member

South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has won a 609.7 billion-won ($495 million) order to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers for an Oceanian shipper. Samsung Heavy said in a regulatory filing that it will deliver the vessels to the undisclosed shipping company by mid-January 2027. So far this year, Samsung Heavy has clinched orders worth some $2 billion, or 21 percent of its 2023 target of $9.5 billion. Early last month, Samsung Heavy obtained a $1.5 bi