Kakao Pay backs out of acquisition deal for Shinsegae’s SSG Pay, Smile Pay

Kakao Pay backs out of acquisition deal for Shinsegae’s SSG Pay, Smile Pay

Kakao Pay Corp., the mobile payment and digital wallet service unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., has pulled out of a deal to acquire two ...

Tencent eyes 2nd-largest stake in Kakao Mobility amid broader Korea push

Tencent eyes 2nd-largest stake in Kakao Mobility amid broader Korea push

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has emerged as a surprise contender in a race to acquire a roughly 40% stake in Kakao Mobility Corp., the o...

Kakao Mobility to build smart infrastructure for Saudi Diriyah project

Kakao Mobility to build smart infrastructure for Saudi Diriyah project

Kakao Mobility Corp., which runs South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app, Kakao T, has clinched a deal to build a future mobility infrastr...

Tencent to become SM Entertainment's No. 2 shareholder via HYBE deal

Tencent to become SM Entertainment's No. 2 shareholder via HYBE deal

Tencent Music Entertainment Group is set to become the second-largest shareholder of SM Entertainment Co. by acquiring HYBE Co.'s remaining shares i...

OpenAI sets up entity in Korea with most paid ChatGPT users outside US

OpenAI sets up entity in Korea with most paid ChatGPT users outside US

OpenAI Inc., the creator of generative AI ChatGPT, has established a legal entity in South Korea, which has the largest number of paying ChatGPT sub...

Kakao Pay in talks to acquire SSG.COM’s SSG Pay and Gmarket’s Smile Pay

Kakao Pay in talks to acquire SSG.COM’s SSG Pay and Gmarket’s Smile Pay

Kakao Pay Corp., the mobile payment and digital wallet service unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., is in advanced negotiations to acquire t...

Mubadala, Goldman Sachs to invest $700 mn in Kakao Mobility

Mubadala, Goldman Sachs to invest $700 mn in Kakao Mobility

United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and Goldman Sachs are set to invest a combined $700 million in Kakao Mobil...

KakaoBank posts record Q1 profit, eyes Thai expansion after Indonesia

KakaoBank posts record Q1 profit, eyes Thai expansion after Indonesia

KakaoBank Corp., a leading South Korean internet-only bank, posted its highest quarterly profit in the first quarter, defying a drop in interest inc...

Kakao shares sink on SK Telecom’s stake sell-off news

Kakao shares sink on SK Telecom’s stake sell-off news

Kakao Corp. shares underperformed its peers and the broad market on Friday after SK Telecom Co. sold off its entire stake in the South Korean platfo...

Korea launches $27 mn fund to invest in K-beauty startups

Korea launches $27 mn fund to invest in K-beauty startups

South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Thursday announced the launch of a 40 billion won ($27 million) fund to invest in Korean beauty...

Kakao Entertainment scraps IPO, seeks new buyer

Kakao Entertainment scraps IPO, seeks new buyer

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s largest mobile platform, is looking to sell a majority stake in Kakao Entertainment Corp., dropping a plan to take ...

Kakao Entertainment sheds loss-making units, revives IPO prospects

Kakao Entertainment sheds loss-making units, revives IPO prospects

Kakao Entertainment Corp. has been divesting unprofitable music labels and digital content platforms, which it has gobbled up over the past few year...

VIG taps KDB financing to buy 40% stake in Kakao Mobility

VIG taps KDB financing to buy 40% stake in Kakao Mobility

South Korea’s private equity firm VIG Partners’ buyout of minority stakes in Kakao Mobility Corp., the nation’s most popular taxi-...

Kakao founder Kim to resign as control tower chair

Kakao founder Kim to resign as control tower chair

Kakao Corp. founder Kim Beom-soo, also known as Brian Kim, will step down as chairman of the South Korean tech giant’s top decision-making bod...

Kakao set to announce AI partnership with OpenAI

Kakao set to announce AI partnership with OpenAI

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s dominant mobile platform, is expected to unveil a business partnership with OpenAI to incorporate the technology of...

Korean B2B fintech firm Dozn plans Kosdaq IPO for $202.5 mn market cap

Korean B2B fintech firm Dozn plans Kosdaq IPO for $202.5 mn market cap

South Korea’s business-to-business fintech service provider Dozn is planning an initial public offering on the Kosdaq in February for an estim...

Piccoma tops consumer spending ranking in Japan

Piccoma tops consumer spending ranking in Japan

Kakao Piccoma, a Japanese digital comics app subsidiary of South Korean mobile giant Kakao Corp., topped the consumer spending ranking in the Japane...

Korean stocks diverge: Winners, losers of Yoon’s martial law debacle

Korean stocks diverge: Winners, losers of Yoon’s martial law debacle

South Korean stocks showed clear divergences on Wednesday amid a mixed market outlook as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration, re...

Bespin Global, Upstage to co-work on AI platform

Bespin Global, Upstage to co-work on AI platform

South Korea's cloud solution provider Bespin Global said on Monday it signed with Upstage, the domestic artificial intelligence (AI) startup, to bui...

SM's UK K-pop group Dear Alice to debut with Gamma

SM's UK K-pop group Dear Alice to debut with Gamma

South Korea's SM Entertainment Co. partnered with the US-based music label "Gamma." to globally debut its first British K-Pop boy group Dear Alice.A...

Kakao Mobility, Samyang Logistics partner on fulfillment services

Kakao Mobility, Samyang Logistics partner on fulfillment services

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app operator, said on Monday that it partnered with logistics firm Samyang Logis...

Samsung to unveil 400-layer bonding vertical NAND for AI servers by 2026

Samsung to unveil 400-layer bonding vertical NAND for AI servers  by 2026

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, plans to unveil a 400-layer vertical NAND flash chip by 2026 to lead the fast-g...

Kakao Mobility to launch outdoor robot delivery

Kakao Mobility to launch outdoor robot delivery

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, said on Monday that it signed a business agreement with Robotis, a comp...

Instagram poised to crack Korean webcomics market

Instagram poised to crack Korean webcomics market

Big tech has begun its encroachment on the South Korean webcomics market, largely dominated by local players over the past two decades, fanning fear...

Kakao to launch AI messenger service Kanana in H1 2025

Kakao to launch AI messenger service Kanana in H1 2025

South Korea’s platform giant Kakao Corp. will roll out Kanana, a conversational AI agent-integrated messenger app, in the first half of next y...

Kakao Mobility, Samsung C&T to co-work on robot, parking solutions

Kakao Mobility, Samsung C&T to co-work on robot, parking solutions

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, announced on Friday that it signed a business agreement with Samsung C&...

Naver Cloud launches AI meeting minutes service

Naver Cloud launches AI meeting minutes service

Naver Cloud, the cloud subsidiary of South Korean online giant Naver Corp., said on Friday the launch of Naver Works Clova Note, an AI-based enterpr...

SK Broadband to launch nationwide dedicated line service in S.Korea

SK Broadband to launch nationwide dedicated line service in S.Korea

South Korea's SK Broadband said on Thursday that it will establish a nationwide network using Internet Protocol-Multi Protocol Label Switching (IP-M...

FTC fines Kakao Mobility $55 mn for alleged unfair taxi-hailing service

FTC fines Kakao Mobility $55 mn for alleged unfair taxi-hailing service

South Korea’s antitrust body has fined Kakao Mobility Corp., the country’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, 72.4 billion won ($54.9 mi...

LG Elec, Ricoh to team up for B2B DX business

LG Elec, Ricoh to team up for B2B DX business

LG Electronics Inc. said on Thursday that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with global office solutions company Ricoh to discover servi...

Kakao Pay backs out of acquisition deal for SSG Pay, Smile Pay Hanwha in talks to buy five-star hotel Paraspara Seoul Kia's Lego-like PV5 with 16 variants to hit market in July Stray Kids make K-pop history with landmark stadium show in Germany S.Korea’s most prominent business leader returns with all charges cleared