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 ...

Hanwha acquires Indonesian bank, first foreign banking venture by Korean insurer

Hanwha acquires Indonesian bank, first foreign banking venture by Korean insurer

Hanwha Life Insurance Co. has become the first South Korean insurance firm to advance into the overseas banking sector by securing a controlling sta...

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...

Naver Ventures to plant flag in Silicon Valley with TwelveLabs bet

Naver Ventures to plant flag in Silicon Valley with TwelveLabs bet

Naver Ventures, the first dedicated Silicon Valley venture capital arm of Naver Corp., has made its debut investment in Nvidia Corp.-backed TwelveLa...

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...

S.Korea’s Naver to launch Silicon Valley venture arm in aggressive AI push

S.Korea’s Naver to launch Silicon Valley venture arm in aggressive AI push

Naver Corp., South Korea’s top internet portal operator, plans to set up a dedicated venture capital arm in Silicon Valley in a move seen as a...

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...

Soon for sale: Altos Ventures-backed Cafe Knotted operator

Soon for sale: Altos Ventures-backed Cafe Knotted operator

Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures-backed Good Food For Good (GFFG), operator of South Korea’s popular dessert cafe, Cafe Knotted, will likel...

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...

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...

LG Innotek ventures into automotive AP module market

LG Innotek ventures into automotive AP module market

LG Innotek Co., a major South Korean electronics parts developer, has forayed into the automotive application processor (AP) module market, poised f...

Hyundai Motor launches future strategy division overseeing M&As

Hyundai Motor launches future strategy division overseeing M&As

Hyundai Motor Group has created a future business strategy division that serves as a control tower for the automotive group’s expansion into n...

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...

HS Hyosung Advanced Materials seeks to sell tire steel cord business

HS Hyosung Advanced Materials seeks to sell tire steel cord business

South Korea’s HS Hyosung Advanced Materials Corp. is seeking to sell its tire steel cord business to secure funds for its new growth ventures ...

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...

Korea’s Shinsegae, China’s Alibaba to set up e-commerce joint venture

Korea’s Shinsegae, China’s Alibaba to set up e-commerce joint venture

South Korea’s retail conglomerate Shinsegae Group has joined forces with Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to better co...

Celltrion BioSolutions launched to venture into CDMO

Celltrion BioSolutions launched to venture into CDMO

Celltrion Inc. on Tuesday launched its contract development and manufacturing organization unit Celltrion BioSolutions Co. in its foray into the CDM...

Hyundai AutoEver establishes JV in Indonesia

Hyundai AutoEver establishes JV in Indonesia

South Korea's Hyundai AutoEver Corp. said on Monday it built the joint venture PT Terra Link technology in Indonesia with India's MapmyIndia. T...

Hyundai, BAIC to inject $1.1 bn in China joint venture  

Hyundai, BAIC to inject $1.1 bn in China joint venture  

Hyundai Motor Co. and its Chinese partner Beijing Motor Corp. (BAIC) will jointly invest $1.1 billion in their joint venture, which produces and sel...

Language learning app Speakeasy joins ranks of unicorn startups

Language learning app Speakeasy joins ranks of unicorn startups

Speakeasy Labs Inc., a South Korea-focused language learning app operator, has joined the ranks of unicorn startups after raising $78 million at a v...

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...

S.Korea's Smilegate invests in GTA producer's studio

S.Korea's Smilegate invests in GTA producer's studio

Smilegate, the South Korean developer of the world’s top first-person shooter game Crossfire, said on Tuesday it invested in the US-based medi...

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