BBQ expands into South Africa

Genesis BBQ Group has made its official debut in South Africa, marking its first venture into the African food market, the South Korean fried chicken franchise said Wednesday. The group’s flagship brand, BBQ, signed a master franchise agreement with Good Tree South Africa, a local distributor of Korean food products, at its Seoul headquarters. Under the agreement, Good Tree will have the exclusive rights to develop, operate and manage all BBQ franchise locations in the country. "South Africa is

Nov. 12, 2025

LG Energy Solution to develop space-bound battery

LG Energy Solution is expanding its battery product portfolio into outer space in partnership with South 8 Technologies, an American startup, the Korean battery-maker said Wednesday. According to LG Energy Solution, the two sides signed a strategic partnership for the research and development of aerospace-bound battery cells. South 8 Technologies is the world’s first company to have developed a liquefied gas electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries, which was named one of the world's top 200 invent

Nov. 12, 2025

[Photo News] Hanwha Life invites Vietnamese fintech talent

Participants in Hanwha Life’s “FuturePlus” Vietnam Fintech Student Excellence Program, which runs Monday to Friday, pose for a photo at the Hanwha 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul. As part of its global corporate social responsibility initiative, Hanwha Life invited 30 outstanding fintech students from Vietnam to Korea for a financial innovation training program this week. The participants attended a welcoming ceremony at the Hanwha 63 Building and visited Dreamplus Gangnam, a shared office space i

Nov. 12, 2025

KT rolls out secure public cloud with Microsoft

KT Corp. on Wednesday announced the launch of its public cloud service, developed in partnership with Microsoft, in a strategic bid to bolster its foothold in Korea’s fast-growing multi-cloud and managed service provider markets. Built on Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure, KT’s new sovereign cloud platform promises high-performance computing while addressing growing concerns over data sovereignty — a critical issue for Korean enterprises handling sensitive information. The service will initially

Nov. 12, 2025

Seoul shares open lower on tech losses despite eased US shutdown woes

Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday, dragged down by losses in technology stocks, even as progress toward ending the longest-ever US government shutdown eased investment jitters. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 8.1 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,098.29 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, US stocks closed mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.25 percent. Technology shares on Wall Street weakened aft

Nov. 12, 2025

Korea delays Google mapping decision again

South Korea has again delayed a decision on whether to approve Google's request to export high-precision map data outside the country, saying the company failed to submit key documents required for review. The National Geographic Information Institute under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday that a government review committee deferred the deliberation until Feb. 5, giving Google an additional 60 days to supplement its application. Google applied in February to export

Nov. 11, 2025

Seoul shares up for 2nd day on eased woes over US govt. shutdown

Seoul shares closed higher Tuesday for the second consecutive day as progress toward ending the record-long US government shutdown boosted investor sentiment. The Korean won sharply fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 33.15 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 4,106.39, after touching as high as 4,187.46. Trade volume was moderate at 375.15 million shares worth 19.93 trillion won ($13.6 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 540 to 339. The mar

Nov. 11, 2025

KDI signals Korea growth bottoming out

Korea’s state-run Korea Development Institute raised its growth outlook for 2025 and 2026, marking its first upward revision in a year as private consumption shows signs of recovery. In its second biannual economic outlook report, the institute forecast Korea’s gross domestic product to expand 0.9 percent this year, reflecting 0.3 percent growth in the first half and 1.5 percent in the second, and marking a 0.1 percentage point increase from its August forecast. Growth is expected to pick up to

Nov. 11, 2025

Korean fried chicken was flying abroad before Kkanbu took flight

The week of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Korea centered around culture as diplomacy, but it was Korean fried chicken that stole the show. The biggest beneficiary was arguably Kkanbu Chicken. The aptly named franchise — “kkanbu” means “close friend” in Korean — was host to Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Executive Chair Chung Euisun on Oct. 30 on the sidelines of the APEC summit. Over chicken and beer, the three leaders

Nov. 11, 2025

Samsung Epis launches new biotech subsidiary Epis NexLab

Samsung Epis Holdings announced Tuesday that it has established a new subsidiary, Epis NexLab, to seek new growth engines by developing biotechnology platforms. The launch of Epis NexLab, whose name combines the words "Next" and "Laboratory," came with the completion of the recent spinoff of Samsung Epis Holdings from contract manufacturing and development organization giant Samsung Biologics. Samsung Epis Holdings said the new entity will focus on developing biotech platforms in various sectors

Nov. 11, 2025

Hyundai Motor on edge as Korea-US tariff deal stalls

Hyundai Motor Group is growing uneasy, as the release of a joint fact sheet on the outcome of Korea-US tariff negotiations faces delays, leaving its US-bound vehicle exports still subject to a hefty 25 percent duty. According to industry sources Tuesday, nearly two weeks have passed since Seoul and Washington were expected to release the document shortly after the Oct. 29 meeting between President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump, held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coo

Nov. 11, 2025

Celltrion cleared to buy US Eli Lilly plant

Korean biosimilar giant Celltrion said Tuesday it has completed US merger review procedures for its acquisition of Eli Lilly’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Branchburg, New Jersey, clearing the way to close the deal within the year. Earlier, Incheon-based Celltrion signed an agreement to buy the facility for $330 million on Sept. 20, alongside a contract manufacturing partnership with Eli Lilly. The transaction has now passed review by both the US Federal Trade Commission’s Preliminar

Nov. 11, 2025

Gen Z picks Zeta: Korean chatbot overtakes ChatGPT

Zeta, a locally developed artificial intelligence chatbot app, has overtaken ChatGPT to become the most-used AI chatbot in South Korea, according to new industry data released Tuesday. Wiseapp Retail, a market analytics firm that monitors app and payment trends based on 51.2 million Android and iOS users nationwide, reported that Zeta recorded 73.62 million cumulative hours of user engagement in October. This figure significantly surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which came in second with 48.28 millio

Nov. 11, 2025

Hyundai Motor to supply electric buses to Bali

Hyundai Motor has been selected as the official supplier of electric buses for Indonesia’s Bali, the Korean automaker said Tuesday. According to Hyundai Motor, which won the bid led by the Global Green Growth Institute on behalf of the Indonesian government in August this year, it received high ratings in the competitiveness of electric bus quality, after-sales services and experience in pro-environmental official development assistance projects. The automaker will supply 10 units of its battery

Nov. 11, 2025

HD Hyundai deepens defense shipbuilding partnership in India

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has signed an agreement with India’s Cochin Shipyard to jointly build naval vessels and pursue upcoming Indian Navy procurement projects, according to the Korean shipbuilder on Tuesday. Cochin Shipyard, India’s largest state-owned yard, already works with HD Hyundai’s parent HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the parent company of HD HHI, on talent training, design upgrades and supply-chain cooperation. Cochin and HD HHI are now planning to jointly bid for

Nov. 11, 2025