Category: Korea-Business

One of the things I love about South Korea is the high number of self-employed mom & pop stores that are few and far between in America now. The COVID protocols are really crushing these businesses now:

In the hit Netflix series, “Squid Game,” the main character, Seong Gi-hun, joins the fight-to-the-death challenge, driven by the 400 million won he owes, after the failure of his restaurants, a business he started after losing his job at a car manufacturing company. Hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the economy, many small business owners say they are no different from Seong. 

In an internet forum on the country’s top search engine and platform, Naver, where the self-employed share information, a man who runs a small sushi restaurant said he could not take his eyes off the show. “The show depicts in detail what it is like to be on the edge of a precipice,” he wrote. Another said he felt like he was living right in the middle of the game. The only difference is that “there will be no prize money even if I win,” he commented.

According to the National Self-Employed Emergency Response Committee, at least 22 small business owners have taken their own lives since the coronavirus pandemic began. One of them retrieved the deposit for her one-room studio apartment so as to pay her part-time workers before committing suicide. For many, even if the business is continuously incurring losses, immediately shutting down is not an option because they cannot terminate their rental contract without losing additional deposit money.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If these teleworkers have work from home syndrome than the entire U.S. military needs to get diagnosed with this disorder because even when you are off duty you are still on duty. Maybe servicemembers can get an extra VA rating for this 😉 :

Three out of every 10 employees who telecommute are experiencing “work-from-home (WFH) syndrome” as the pandemic rolls on and the boundary between work and life blurs. 

According to a survey of 910 remote workers conducted by recruiting platform Job Korea from Sept. 3 to 10, 32.1 percent of the respondents said they have experienced the WFH syndrome, experienced as physical and emotional stress.

Where multiple answers were allowed, 54.8 percent said they experienced the feeling that they were still working even after work hours, similar to 46.2 percent who answered they felt a nervous and stressed all day. 

“In a from-home working environment, the physical distinction between work and home life is pretty vague. I think that’s why I can’t get my mind off of work even when my computer is turned off and feel like I’m working all day,” said a 28-year-old employee in Seoul who asked to be identified only by her surname Kim. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This CNBC article says Google makes $426k a minute. So it will take Google about 7 hours today to make enough money to pay this fine:

 South Korea’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday it has decided to fine global tech giant Google 207.4 billion won (US$176.8 million) for pressing smartphone makers into only using its Android mobile operating system.

Since 2016, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has been looking into Google over allegations it obstructed local smartphone makers, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., from using operating systems developed by rivals.

Google has hampered market competition by requiring smartphone makers to clinch an “anti-fragmentation agreement (AFA)” when they sign key contracts with Google over app store licenses and early access to OS, according to the regulator.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Only the hedgefunds are supposed to game the market, not the little people:

A group of retail investors here have dropped their plans to conduct a mass buying of a certain stock on the Seoul bourse, which was initially supposed to take place this month to protest against short-sellers, most of whom are foreign and institutional investors.

The Korea Stockholders Alliance (KSA) announced Sunday that the decision was made after taking into account the advice from its legal advisers and the predictable scenarios.

“Our campaign has been described as a form of speculation aiming for a short-term margin, and above all, short-sellers’ interruptions that rattled the market have created negative public sentiment toward us,” one of the alliance’s managers wrote on its website.

The group had tried to emulate U.S. social media platform Reddit’s WallStreetBets internet forum users, who sparked a short squeeze of the GameStop stock on the New York Stock Exchange in January through a mass-purchase of the American video game retailer’s stocks.

The campaign conducted by retail investors surprised global market insiders at that time, because an unexpected hike in the GameStop stock price caused large losses to several hedge funds that had bet on the price fall.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I always figured a chaebol family figure would lead this ranking, but it ends up being a self made tech entrepreneur instead:

The self-made founder of Kakao has become the country’s richest person, backed by stock gains this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bloomberg reported that Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su, 55, has a net worth of $13.4 billion (15.4 trillion won), which places him at the top of Korea’s wealth rankings. Following him is Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, with a net worth of $12.1 billion.

Kim’s assets ballooned by more than $6 billion this year as Kakao’s share price surged 91 percent from early January. The tech company’s stock gains were fueled by scheduled listings of multiple affiliates this year, including internet-based lender Kakao Bank, which will make its local stock market debut next month.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If you have kids you probably know what Roblox is and apparently many Korean investors know as well:

Tesla and Apple have long been the most popular foreign stocks for Korean investors — but not anymore.    
   
Between July 1 and July 23, Korean investors purchased a net $86.54 million worth of shares of Alphabet, which owns Google, making it the most popular foreign stock, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository.   
   
The second most popular was Roblox, a California-based online game developer, of which Koreans purchased a net $75.95 million.  
   
The rise of the metaverse drove its popularity. Roblox allows users to develop their own mini-games, share them with others and change the in-game currency, Robux, into real money. The allowing of users to build their own worlds and make real money has made it a hot metaverse platform.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like major tech companies like Netflix and Google will no longer be able to avoid paying taxes in South Korea and possibly other countries as well:

The Korean offices of Netflix and Google will have to pay higher corporate taxes, upon the agreement of over 130 participants in the OECD blueprints drawn up to tackle global tax challenges.

Apart from the two firms, global IT giants including Amazon, Facebook and Apple will be subject to the so-called “Google tax,” whereby large digital companies will have to pay a certain amount of corporate tax, the rate of which is yet to be determined. 

“The government will have the grounds to tax them, if the agreement is reached. Nothing has been finalized yet,” a finance ministry official said, Tuesday. 

This is part of the global wave of efforts to tax the lucrative firms based on where their revenues are generated, not where their regional headquarters are located. Many global tech heavyweights have long managed to pay only a fraction of their profits as taxes here, largely by routing them to lower rate tax jurisdictions where their headquarters are based. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The real story is not being reported is what President Moon wants from the Biden administration in return for these investments. My guess will be he wants the U.S. to be more flexible on sanctions to jump start his North Korea engagement policy:

The United States is the world’s leading technology and innovation hub, but it is not a leader in the high-tech supply chain, mostly relying on Asian countries for essential items, such as semiconductors and batteries for electric vehicles. 

In the face of growing challenges from China, U.S. President Joe Biden wants to revitalize the domestic manufacturing capacity amid the global chip crisis and a looming shortage of batteries, and he is expected to welcome a series of announcements of massive investment plans by Korean companies ahead of and after his summit talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Could you imagine having to pay this much in taxes:

The scions of Samsung Group, South Korea’s top conglomerate, are likely to unveil a plan this week on how to finance their massive inheritance tax, which includes the donation of late group chief Lee Kun-hee’s art collections.

The senior Lee, who was South Korea’s richest man, left more than 22 trillion won ($19.6 billion) worth of assets, including stocks valued around 19 trillion won.

Lee, who died in October last year at age 78, was survived by his wife, Hong Ra-hee, only son, Jae-yong, and two daughters — Boo-jin and Seo-hyun.

Lee’s family members are expected to pay around 12 trillion won in inheritance taxes for the late chief’s assets. 

They have to report and pay inheritance taxes to local authorities by the end of this month.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but you know a tax bill is high when Samsung heirs are even having trouble trying to pay it.

Bloomberg has a long, in-depth read on how a Korean-American immigrant turned billionaire, lost $20 billion dollars in just two days last month:

Before he lost it all—all $20 billion—Bill Hwang was the greatest trader you’d never heard of.

Starting in 2013, he parlayed more than $200 million left over from his shuttered hedge fund into a mind-boggling fortune by betting on stocks. Had he folded his hand in early March and cashed in, Hwang, 57, would have stood out among the world’s billionaires. There are richer men and women, of course, but their money is mostly tied up in businesses, real estate, complex investments, sports teams, and artwork. Hwang’s $20 billion net worth was almost as liquid as a government stimulus check. And then, in two short days, it was gone.

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link, but Hwang was also a large donor to the human rights group Liberty in North Korea (LiNK):

Hwang is closely involved with a group called Liberty in North Korea, or Link, that has helped about 1,300 North Koreans escaping the regime. “He doesn’t use God as a cover,” says Jensen Ko, a colleague at Archegos. “He lives that out.”