Category: Korea-Business

People must have a lot of money to waste to spend up $1,800 over the current asking price for the Vision Pro just to get it earlier than when it is officially released in South Korea:

A customer uses Apple’s Vision Pro headset at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., February 2, 2024. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Apple’s Vision Pro is being sold at a premium of as much as 2.4 million won ($1,800) in Korea as the new wearable is not officially available in the country. 
  
Some are even paying to experience the device for a couple of hours.

Apple’s MR (mixed reality) headset, the Vision Pro, launched in the United States on Feb. 1 to better-than-expected popularity despite a hefty price tag of $3,500 for the cheapest 256-gigabyte storage option. An estimated 180,000 units or more have been sold, selling out the pre-order quantity.

Major secondhand marketplaces in Korea have dozens of posts reselling the device at an inflated price. Mostly purchased in the U.S., these devices are listed with a price 1 million won to 2 million won over the official price tag.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but has any ROK Heads try this headset out yet? Is it anywhere near being worth the price currently listed for it?

Is this a good thing or a bad thing that South Korea has so many Starbucks stores?:

 South Korea held the fourth-largest number of Starbucks stores around the globe as of last year, data showed Monday, driven by solid demand from local consumers.

South Korea held 1,893 Starbucks stores as of 2023, up 116 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the U.S. coffee giant.

The figure falls just behind Japan’s count at 1,901, despite the Asian neighbor having a population twice the size of South Korea’s.

The Seattle-based coffee giant introduced its first store in Seoul in 1999 in partnership with Shinsegae Group, a Korean retail group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korea is one of the places in the world where EV’s actually make sense due to the shorter distances between cities:

Electric cars accounted for 9.3 percent of newly purchased cars in South Korea last year, data showed Monday, hovering above that of other major counterparts, including the United States and Japan.

The electric vehicles (EVs) took up 162,507 of 1.74 million cars sold in South Korea in 2023, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The ratio marked a significant rise from just 1.9 percent tallied in 2019.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

South Korea has found another customer for their growing defense industry:

During the talks held on the sidelines of the World Defense Show, the two sides discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in defense and the arms industry, the ministry said. 

On the margins the defense exhibition, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and Saudi defense ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to pave the way for cooperation in the defense industry and joint weapons development. 

Under the MOU, the two sides will launch a bilateral committee to jointly conduct research and development of weapons systems for continued cooperation in the defense industry, DAPA said.

Yonhap via a reader tip

Besides this MOU the ROK also secured a deal to sell missile interceptors to Saudi Arabia as well:

South Korean defense firm LIG Nex1 has clinched a US$3.2 billion deal to export mid-range surface-air-to missiles (M-SAM II) to Saudi Arabia, Seoul’s defense ministry said Tuesday.

LIG Nex1 inked the contract with the Saudi defense ministry to sell Cheongung M-SAM II in November, the ministry said.

It marks LIG Nex1’s second overseas sales of Cheongung-II following a deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January 2022.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This would be a big loss for Korean companies if the new Polish prime minister decides to cancel these contracts. I guess the new Prime Minister wants to get on the Uncle Sam defense gravy train like the rest of Europe:

South Korea is in talks with Poland to ensure the multiple arms contracts signed between Korean companies and the Polish government will be carried out as agreed despite the change of the leadership in Warsaw, a Seoul official said Tuesday. 

Concerns are growing as the new Polish government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, signaled a revision to some of the arms contracts inked under the preceding government, citing overspending of the budget. 

South Korean defense firms have clinched about US$13-14 billion worth of arms sales contracts with Poland this year, which include plans for deliveries of rocket launchers, fighter jets, tanks and self-propelled howitzers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This predictably did not go over well:

A team led by Andrew, comprising James, Chris and Lisa, engages in lively conversations about work while addressing each other by their first names.

This atmosphere is something that some Korean companies are trying to emulate by mandating all employees to use their preferred English name while at work.

The rationale is that they need to move away from the Korean language’s emphasis on honorifics, position titles and other formalities, to facilitate horizontal communication. The thinking is that, by ditching Korean names and the complex honorifics system attached to them in the Korean language, employees should be able to engage in more open and effective communication, encouraging innovation.

But does it actually work?

Predictable resistance

As one can imagine, not all employees welcome mandatory name-change policies with open arms.

At Kyobo Life Insurance, skepticism hangs over the company’s four-month-old English-name policy.

“It’s ridiculous,” said one employee who requested anonymity.

“Communication hasn’t improved, and some colleagues can’t even pronounce the English names, so we’ve had to post Korean pronunciations next to them on our company’s intranet.”

Korea Herald

You can read about all the examples of how this policy worked out at the link. It appears the younger the workforce is the more likely this policy will have better results.

This is an interesting to see how both CEOs perform leading two of Korea’s biggest IT brands:

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, left, and Kakao CEO nominee Chung Shin-a / Courtesy of each company

Naver and Kakao, Korea’s two major internet companies, are in a female leadership contest after the latter recently nominated Chung Shin-a, chief of the group’s venture capital unit, as CEO, according to industry officials and experts.

Naver, operator of Korea’s most used internet portal service, and Kakao, which owns the most popular mobile chat app KakaoTalk, are both to be run by female CEOs.

Of note, is how these two CEOs will lead the internet giants in the AI era, they said.

The appointment of women as CEOs in a rapidly changing IT industry is explained by their expertise in the sector, they said. Also, by appointing women as new leaders, the companies can expect to refresh their image.

“What is expected from female CEOs is not only their expertise but that they can scrutinize the business more thoroughly as women,” Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I did not realize that the Netherlands had their own chipmaking capabilities:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol began his state visit to the Netherlands by meeting with a group of Korean residents and vowing to upgrade the two countries’ relations to a “semiconductor alliance.”

As the first official schedule, Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee attended a welcoming ceremony hosted by Willem-Alexander, king of the Netherlands, held at Dam Square in Amsterdam on Tuesday (local time).

oon arrived in Amsterdam on Monday on a four-day visit aimed at strengthening cooperation between South Korea, a leading chip manufacturer, and the Netherlands, home to chipmaking equipment companies such as ASML.

“Semiconductors are an important area not only for our industries but also for our security,” he said during the dinner meeting with some 100 Korean residents at an Amsterdam hotel. “Through this visit, the semiconductor cooperation between South Korea and the Netherlands will be upgraded to a semiconductor alliance.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if President Biden realizes this is a South Korean owned company or not manufacturing these wind turbines in Colorado?:

U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned a Colorado-based factory of a South Korean wind tower maker again on Monday, as he highlighted the outcomes of his economic policy to promote clean energy and create jobs. 

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden said that thanks to workers at a factory of CS Wind Corp. in Pueblo, the United States is “changing.” Biden toured the factory, the world’s largest wind tower manufacturer, on Wednesday as he is gearing up for reelection.

“Tony, because of workers like you and the hundreds of employees at CS Wind, America is changing,” Biden wrote, referring to Tony Salerno, production manager of CS Wind America.

“Instead of exporting jobs, companies from around the world are creating jobs here in America and exporting American-made products. We are moving,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.