Leading FIDO Standardization
KT and SK Telecom announced on April 6 that they obtained the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) certification, an international standard for biometric verification. These days, the international standard for biometric verification is being adopted by an increasing number of enterprises that are looking to replace existing means for personal identification, such as passwords, with new ones in the interest of convenience and security in the fields including fintech.
FIDO is characterized by authenticating biometric data in safe areas of smart devices and transmitting only the encrypted result values, instead of the biometric data, to servers in conducting ID verification. As a result, it can ensure a high level of security and the protection of privacy without exposing users’ ID data during the authentication process.
KT is planning to provide new, FIDO-based personal identification services from the second half of this year with regard to log-in, payment, etc. Those based on fingerprint recognition are expected to be introduced first before the others using different types of biometric data. SK Telecom, in the meantime, is going to provide authentication solutions for everyday life, media and the Internet of Things (IoT) by making use of FIDO before expanding it to cover finance, fintech and so on.
It has been found that the Hyundai Motor Group recorded a share of 64.8% in the South Korean automobile market last month, reaching the lowest level since July 2006. Last month, the domestic market shares of GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motors were 9.7%, 5.9% and 5.2%, respectively. Imported cars posted a market share of 13.8%.
The three South Korean automakers other than Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors succeeded in increasing their shares. The sales volume of GM Korea’s Spark hit a record high of 9,175. The volume increased by 87.7% from a year ago and surpassed that of the Kia Morning, its rival in the city car segment, for the second consecutive month. The domestic sales of GM Korea increased by 27.6% from a year earlier and the company reached a record-high March sales volume last month since its inception in 2002.
Thanks to the recently released SM6, Renault Samsung Motors recorded a domestic sales volume of more than 10,000 cars in March for the first time in six years. The company’s sales volume for last month increased 70.5% from a year ago and 140.1% from a month ago to 10,235. The SM6, which was put on the market last month, has been delivered to 6,751 customers and about 14,000 more customers are waiting for delivery.
Ssangyong Motors’ Tivoli and Tivoli Air, which was released about a month ago, showed sales volumes high enough to make up for the automaker’s sluggish overseas sales. The number of contracts for the latter recently exceeded 3,500, causing the total number of contracts for the Tivoli series models to top 8,500.