Naver and Kakao have acquired North American web novel content platforms, starting a full-scale web content platform war.Naver announced on May 11 that it has completed the acquisition of the world's largest web novel platform "Wattpad." The company’s board of directors decided to acquire Wattpa
Samsung Electronics announced on May 11 that it has developed a new memory module supporting the new Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect standard, which is designed to overcome the physical limitations of DRAM modules. Industry watchers say Samsung has made another quantum leap in memory semicon
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association announced on May 10 that 97,486 imported cars, up 25.6 percent from a year ago, were sold in South Korea from January to April this year. Those include 20,203 cars with a price of at least 100 million won. The figure increased 74.13 percent y
CJ Logistics has integrated the international logistics systems used by its subsidiaries at home and abroad.The company announced on May 10 that it has developed a global integrated forwarding system called Q’ Bridge and started its full-fledged operations.Q’ Bridge replaces separate forwarding syst
The author is an analyst of Shinhan Investment Corp. He can be reached at sejonghong@shinhan.com. -- Ed. IPO of domestic leader in targeted ads using de-identified big dataWider Planet offers targeted ads using big data on consumption patterns and preferences. Following the IPO, the company plans to
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at drlee@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY; Revise down TP to KRW1,100,000 We maintain BUY and revise down our TP by 4.5% to KRW1,100,000 for NCsoft. We have revised down 2021E revenue and OP by 8.8% and 15.8%, respectively, to reflect sluggis
The Bolt EV became the best-selling imported electric vehicle (EV) in April by selling 148 units, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA). The Bolt EV was followed by the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 4MATIC (137 units) and Porsche's first pure electric sports ca
Samsung Electronics is expected to release new foldable phones such as the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August. The company usually releases its Galaxy Note series in August, but this year it is moving to put foldable phones front and center instead of the Galaxy Note series.Samsung El
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at jy.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. HHS’s 1Q21 results beat consensus on a reduced portion of low-margin products. The relative attractiveness of the home shopping business is losing some luster due to the recent rise of an offline ‘f
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at kyeongkeun.kang@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Demand for high-precision sensors is rising across various industries. Sensor specialist Samyoung S&C is able to manufacture materials, module packaging, and finished products. Starting from
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. She can be reached at hzl.lee@nhqv.com. -- Ed. 1Q21 review: Both core and new businesses proceeding smoothlyWe adhere to a Buy rating and TP of W50,000 on Nasmedia. Alongside smooth growth at its new businesses, Nasmedia’s core business stabili
Imported car sales in April rose 11.5 percent on year in the Korean automobile market. The best-selling imported car brand was Mercedes-Benz, followed by BMW at second place. In particular, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which do not manufacture cars in Korea, sold more cars than GM Korea, Renault Samsung a
The Seoul Metropolitan Council has passed an amendment to the ordinance on towing illegally parked shared e-scooters.Under the amended ordinance, which passed on May 6, a device left in a no-parking zone will be towed at the operator's expense of 40,000 won (US$36) if it is not collected within
Korea's first homemade microcontroller unit (MCU) for cars has been released. Korea's automobile producers have thus far relied on imports for 97 to 98 percent of their MCU demand.The 32nm MCU was developed by Telechips, a Korean semiconductor design company. Samsung Electronics began a pilo
Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, is partnering up with South Korea’s leading self-driving technology company Mando Co. to develop front camera simulation technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).Unity has signed a memorandum
The authors are analysts of Shinhan Investment Corp. They can be reached at hyungwou@shinhan.com and ym.ko@shinhan.com, respectively. -- Ed. 1Q21 results in line with expectationsSimmtech reported operating profit of KRW15.3bn (+12% YoY) on sales of KRW283.1bn (-2% YoY) for 1Q21, in line with our es
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. In 1Q21, SEC’s earnings improvement was led by the IM and CE divisions. While semicon earnings fell due to the firm’s ineffective business strategy, the CE division enjoyed strong earnings momentum th
LG Display's sales grew 46 percent on year to 6,882.8 billion won in the first quarter of 2021, according to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system. Its operating profit stood at 523 billion won, a turnaround from an operating deficit in the first quarter of 2020.Althou
Kolon Industries is stepping up its efforts to expand its presence in the global foldable display markets with its colorless polyimide (CPI) films.The company announced on May 3 that its CPI films will be used for Xiaomi's first foldable phone Mi Mix Fold. Xiaomi aims to sell 500,000 units of th
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at midas.sohn@nhqv.com. -- Ed. KG Mobilians’ 1Q21 earnings improvement was aided by synergy effects from its merger with KG Allat on Feb 2020. Backed by the launch of monthly payment services in 2Q21 and the start of business