Samsung Electronics was ranked second in the smart home patent application rankings in the world in 2020. LG Electronics placed fifth ahead of big-name competitors such as Google, Apple and Sony.Samsung made 909 applications to take the second spot in the 2020 Global Smart Home Invention Patent Rank
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) recently finished its four-year investigation on whether Google hindered the development and use of a modified Android operating system by South Korean mobile phone manufacturers. The commission’s tentative conclusion is that Google abused its market dominance
Hyundai Motor Group is considering taking over Boston Dynamics, a U.S. robot company, from SoftBank Group of Japan.Bloomberg reported on Nov. 10 that the automotive group is negotiating on the takeover of Boston Dynamics with Softbank, the robot company’s largest shareholder. The acquisition price i
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. They can be reached at jaemin.ahn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. With a number of games utilizing MU IP enjoying ongoing success, and even its in-house developed game (R2M) performing well, we believe that now is the time to pay renewed attention to Webzen f
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has released guidelines on the access to and use of evidence data prior to imposing sanctions on Google.According to the current law, every KFTC investigation subject can access and copy the commission’s evidence data only with the consent of the submitter or o
Eight SK Group affiliates including SK hynix and SK Telecom have joined the Renewable Energy (RE) 100 global initiative. They announced on Oct. that they would submit applications to the RE 100 Committee of Korea on Oct. 2.The eight companies plan to meet 100 percent of their electricity demand with
The Financial Supervisory Service announced on Oct. 27 that individual investors’ foreign stock investment totaled 28.9 trillion won and the gains from the investment added up to 3.4 trillion won at the end of August this year, the investment increased 142.6 percent in eight months, and their invest
Samsung SDS has recently won several domestic and international AI machine reading comprehension (MRC) competitions, gaining recognition for its technological capabilities.The AI-based natural language understanding and learning model developed by Samsung SDS’s Technology Research has recently won f
Samsung Electronics announced on Oct. 20 that it has become number five in the Best Global Brands 2020 list announced by Interbrand, a global brand consulting company, with its largest-ever brand value of US$62.3 billion.This marked the first time that a Korean company has entered the top five list.
The author is an analyst of Shinhan Investment Corp. He can be reached at mj1224@shinhan.com. -- Ed. 3Q20 operating profit forecast at KRW192.5bn (-7.9% QoQ)NCsoft is expected to have reported operating profit of KRW192.5bn (-7.9% QoQ) on sales of KRW558.1bn (+3.6% QoQ) for 3Q20, slightly missing th
An increasing number of non-Chinese companies in China are relocating to Southeast Asia with labor costs rising in China. Under the circumstances, many South Korean companies are also moving from China to Southeast Asia instead of their home country.In a survey conducted in the third quarter of this
The OECD and G20 have decided to impose the so-called digital tax on general product and service providers such as Samsung Electronics as well as digital service providers such as Google and apply different standards in imposing the tax. The tax burden on the former is expected to be lower than that
SK Telecom announced on Oct. 13 that it has released AI-based “Abnormal Cloud Cost Detection Solution” along with Bespin Global, a company specializing in cloud computing operations.The solution analyzes cloud use amounts and costs based on AI. It notifies operators of abnormal costs in real time, a
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Byun Jae-il remarked on Oct. 8 that YouTube is discriminating against South Korea with regard to the YouTube Premium family membership.At present, YouTube Premium in South Korea is priced at 10,450 won and 14,000 won a month for Android phone and iPhone users, resp
Google’s in-app payment and 30 percent fee were covered at the parliamentary inspection of the Ministry of Science and ICT that took place on Oct. 7. National Assembly members urged the passage of a Telecommunications Business Act amendment against in-app payment.Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker H
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at jeff.kim@kbfg.com. -- Ed. North American data center operators begin ordering server DRAM in 4Q20 We maintain BUY and our TP of KRW105,000 for SK hynix. Four North American data center operators (i.e., Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Face
Samsung Electronics Co. announced on Oct. 6 that it will hold the Samsung AI Forum 2020 online via its YouTube channel for two days from Nov. 2-3.Marking its fourth anniversary this year, the forum gathers world-renowned academics and industry experts on artificial intelligence (AI) and serves as a
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has announced the enactment of a new law for fair intermediate transaction on online platforms.The bill will be applied to every business acting as a product or service transaction intermediary between a consumer and an online platform user. The examples includ
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Hyperscalers are expected to resume their data center investment from 4Q20. Smartphone makers are to continue accumulating inventory in 4Q20. And, consumers are giving warm responses to recently annou
SK Telecom released on Sept. 24 a video ringback tone service called ‘V Coloring’ to create a fun and interesting experience for customers. V Coloring is a service that plays a short-form video selected or created by the person being called on the caller’s mobile phone while the call is being connec