Journalist
Candice Kim, Lim Jaeho
candicekim1121@ajupress.com, ajupresswogh@ajupress.com
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Korea, U.S. fail to reach deal in tariff talks as discussions set to continue SEOUL, January 31 (AJP) - South Korea and the United States failed to reach a conclusion in tariff negotiations this week, as talks over Washington’s potential reimposition of higher duties on Korean goods ended without agreement. South Korea’s Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said Saturday that discussions with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had deepened mutual understanding but fell short of producing a concrete outcome. “Both sides were able to better understand each other’s positions, but further dialogue will be needed,” Kim told reporters after meeting Lutnick for more than two hours at the U.S. Commerce Department in Washington. Kim said no final decision had been made on whether the United States would proceed with raising tariffs on South Korean exports, adding that negotiations remain ongoing. The talks followed renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week warned that tariffs on Korean products — including automobiles, timber and pharmaceuticals — could be raised back to 25 percent if South Korea fails to pass legislation supporting pledged U.S. investment. Kim visited Washington earlier this week to urge the United States not to reinstate higher tariffs, emphasizing Seoul’s commitment to implementing bilateral trade agreements and advancing a proposed special law aimed at facilitating Korean investment in the United States. South Korea’s industry ministry said the two sides agreed that investment projects under the proposed legislation should be mutually beneficial to both economies, though it acknowledged that additional discussions would be required. Kim said further consultations will continue via video conference after his return to Seoul, marking the end of his U.S. visit. 2026-01-31 11:28:51 -
LG Elec profit slumps in 2025 on restructuring costs, media business losses SEOUL, January 30 (AJP) - LG Electronics reported a sharp decline in operating profit in 2025, as hefty one-off restructuring costs and persistent weakness in its media and entertainment business weighed heavily on earnings, overshadowing steady growth in its core home appliance and vehicle component units. The South Korean electronics maker said its annual operating profit fell 27.5 percent from a year earlier to 2.48 trillion won ($1.8 billion), after slipping into an operating loss in the fourth quarter amid rising cost burdens. LG posted an operating loss of 109 billion won in the October–December period, marking its first quarterly loss in nine years, as delayed demand recovery for display-based products, intensifying competition in the global TV market and increased marketing expenses eroded profitability. Earnings were further pressured by several trillion won in non-recurring costs related to a company-wide voluntary retirement program implemented in the second half of the year, the company said. While revenue growth continued, profitability deteriorated as cost pressures outpaced sales expansion. The company’s media and entertainment division swung to an operating loss of 751 billion won for the year, reversing a profit recorded a year earlier, as sluggish global TV demand and price competition from Chinese rivals weighed on margins. By contrast, LG’s core businesses delivered relatively resilient performance. The home appliance division posted operating profit of 1.28 trillion won, supported by production optimization, price adjustments and cost controls aimed at mitigating tariff-related risks. The vehicle solutions unit also delivered its strongest performance on record, with operating profit rising to 559 billion won, driven by smoother conversion of order backlogs into sales. Business-to-business revenue, including vehicle components, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and component solutions, rose 3 percent year on year to 24.1 trillion won, reflecting the company’s ongoing shift toward so-called “quality growth” areas. Subscription-based appliance services and direct-to-consumer sales channels continued to expand, with subscription revenue jumping 29 percent to nearly 2.5 trillion won. LG said the restructuring measures are expected to help ease fixed-cost burdens over the medium to long term, while efforts are under way to strengthen competitiveness in its media business. Looking ahead, the company said it plans to reinforce its OLED and LCD product lineup and expand its webOS-based advertising and content ecosystem. LG also highlighted growing opportunities in cooling solutions for artificial intelligence data centers, including plans to commercialize liquid-cooling technologies and deepen related partnerships. Shares of LG Electronics closed down 1.8 percent at 99,100 won on Friday. 2026-01-30 17:38:35 -
After conquering beauty front, Olive Young expands to wellness with Gwanghwamun opening SEOUL, January 29 (AJP) - Best known as South Korea’s dominant K-beauty retailer, Olive Young is opening a new chapter — one that extends beyond cosmetics and into everyday wellness. The company on Thursday unveiled to the media the first flagship store of its new wellness platform, Olive Better, in Gwanghwamun, one of Seoul’s busiest and most symbolic district name recently gaining renewed global fame. The area sits at the heart of the capital, home to government offices, multinational corporations and major cultural events. In March, it is set to lend its open space for the much-awaited comeback performance by global K-pop group BTS — a reminder of how the district routinely draws massive crowds of both locals and foreign visitors. The location itself carries commercial weight. The site previously housed one of Seoul’s most heavily trafficked two-story Starbucks stores, long known as a landmark meeting point for office workers and tourists alike. From beauty to daily wellness At a media briefing held earlier in the day, Olive Young framed Olive Better as its attempt to redefine wellness not as a niche category, but as part of daily life. An Olive Young official described the concept through a “six-well” philosophy: Eat well, nourish well, fit well, glow well, relax well and care well. The shift comes as interest in wellness has accelerated in South Korea since the pandemic, expanding from fitness and dieting toward sleep quality, stress management and functional nutrition. Some visitors said the space felt reminiscent of U.S. wellness-focused retailers, drawing parallels to Trader Joe’s for its accessibility and to Erewhon for its curated, premium aesthetic. Why create a separate brand? Given Olive Young’s dominance in the health-and-beauty retail market, the decision to launch a separate wellness platform raises an obvious question. Company officials said wellness demands a fundamentally different retail structure. “Beauty focuses on visible results, but wellness is about habits,” an Olive Young representative said. “We needed a space that helps consumers practice small routines consistently, rather than simply buy products.” Defining K-wellness Asked how Olive Young defines K-wellness (Korean wellness), particularly for global consumers with different cultural standards, the company emphasized a domestic-first strategy. “Olive Better is designed primarily for Korean customers,” an official told AJP. “The core of K-wellness lies in how people maintain their health within extremely busy daily schedules.” “If that culture naturally takes root here, foreign visitors may eventually become interested in how Koreans manage wellness in everyday life — much like how K-beauty spread globally,” the official added. A store shaped by urban routines That philosophy becomes clear inside the Gwanghwamun store. The merchandise targets time-constrained urban consumers. Near the entrance, shelves are lined with ginger shots, portable protein drinks and functional beverages designed for quick consumption between work schedules. Unlike traditional beauty retail, Olive Better allows visitors to sample food and drinks on-site — replacing cosmetic testers with tasting stations. Further inside, entire sections are dedicated to rest and recovery. Sleep-related products occupy prominent space, including loungewear, pajamas and melatonin-infused products — a category that has grown rapidly in Korea in recent years. “Interest in sleep hygiene among young adults has increased noticeably,” said Dr. Lee, a neurologist specializing in sleep patterns. “Many people now receive sleep education or try behavioral and lifestyle adjustments first, and if those don’t work, they proceed to medical treatment,” he said. The rise in sleep-focused consumption reflects a broader shift in how Koreans perceive wellness — not as luxury, but as survival in high-pressure urban life. Wellness as culture, not category Rather than presenting wellness as aspiration or transformation, Olive Better frames health as something practical — routines that can be executed between commutes, meetings and late nights. In the middle of Seoul’s political, corporate and cultural crossroads, the store positions wellness not as escape, but as part of daily motion. For Olive Young, the bet is clear: if wellness becomes an everyday practice for Koreans, it may eventually travel abroad not as a product export, but as culture. Olive Better officially launches Friday. 2026-01-29 19:19:40 -
Samsung vs SK hynix HBM4 race, pioneer holds a clear lead -for now SEOUL, January 29 (AJP) - South Korea’s two dominant memory-chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, have formally entered the race for next-generation high-bandwidth memory, or HBM4, as demand from artificial-intelligence chipmakers tightens an already constrained market. The companies, which together command roughly 80 percent of high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, held back-to-back earnings conference calls on the same day for the first time, offering competing visions of how the next phase of the AI-driven memory cycle will unfold. Both projected sustained supply tightness this year despite aggressive capacity expansion, following record earnings in 2025. The rivalry centers on HBM4, the next standard for AI memory, where Samsung is newly entering the supply chain of Nvidia after SK hynix enjoyed a near-monopoly position in earlier generations. SK hynix, which pioneered the HBM market and delivered an industry-leading 58 percent operating margin from chip sales in the fourth quarter, expressed confidence that its technological lead would carry into the next cycle. “Our commercialization capabilities and product quality, which have earned customer trust, cannot be overtaken in a short period,” said Song Hyun-jong, president of SK hynix’s corporate center. “As with HBM and HBM3, we aim to secure overwhelming leadership in HBM4.” Samsung, which plans to roll out 11.7-gigabits-per-second HBM4 products as early as next month, said demand is already outstripping supply. Orders for 2026 have exceeded the company’s current capacity, executives said, with key customers seeking advance bookings for 2027 deliveries. “Despite continued expansion, our capacity cannot keep up with demand,” said Kim Jae-june, executive vice president of Samsung’s memory division, adding that HBM revenue this year is expected to more than triple from 2025 levels. Both companies pledged a “significant” ramp-up in capacity this year compared with 2026, though neither disclosed precise figures. SK hynix said it remains comfortable committing capital investment equivalent to roughly 30 percent of this year’s projected revenue. Samsung said it will respond to customer demand through timely shipment of competitive HBM4 products while expanding sales of AI-related memory and addressing rising NAND demand linked to AI workloads. For now, the competitive gap is already visible in financial results. Samsung posted strong operating income and record sales in the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, but lagged SK hynix in profitability. Samsung reported 16.4 trillion won in chip operating profit for the December quarter, while SK hynix generated 19.17 trillion won on sales of 80.8 trillion won, yielding the industry’s highest margin. For full-year 2025, Samsung recorded 24.9 trillion won in chip operating profit, compared with SK hynix’s 47.2 trillion won on sales of 97.15 trillion won, underscoring the advantage of SK hynix’s heavier exposure to AI-related, high-margin memory. Kim Duk-ki, a professor of electronic engineering at Sejong University, said the surge in memory profitability reflects AI-driven demand outpacing supply, but warned that overly rapid investment expansion could reintroduce volatility in a historically cyclical industry. “If capital spending accelerates too quickly, price instability could eventually follow,” he said. Market analysts largely expect SK hynix to retain its lead. Counterpoint Research estimates the company will account for about 54 percent of global HBM4 sales this year, compared with 28 percent for Samsung and 18 percent for Micron. The firm previously held 62 percent of HBM3 shipments as of mid-2025. Goldman Sachs expects SK hynix to maintain a comfortable lead in HBM3 through at least 2026, while UBS forecasts the company could capture around 70 percent of the HBM4 market tied to next-generation AI platforms, including Nvidia’s Rubin architecture. Samsung Electronics shares closed down 0.7 percent at 161,300 won on Thursday, while SK hynix climbed 2.7 percent to 864,000 won, reflecting investors’ contrasting reactions to the two chipmakers’ earnings and outlook. For now, Samsung’s entry marks a meaningful escalation in competition. But in the early stages of the HBM4 cycle, investors and customers alike appear to see the pioneer as remaining firmly in front. * AJP Yuna Ryu and Yoo Joonha contributed to this story. 2026-01-29 17:43:00 -
SK hynix best-yet Q4 and 2025 income, beating consensus and Samsung Elec SEOUL, January 28 (AJP) -SK hynix, leveraging its dominant lead in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) powering hyperscalers and AI accelerators, delivered its strongest-yet quarterly and annual results and expects further gains this year as global memory revenue approaches $1 trillion. According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, operating income for the quarter ended December surged to 19.17 trillion won ($13.5 billion), up 68 percent from the previous quarter and 137 percent from a year earlier, marking the company’s best quarterly performance on record. Quarterly revenue climbed to a historic high of 32.83 trillion won. The results comfortably beat market expectations. A FnGuide consensus had projected operating profit of 16.4 trillion won on sales of 30.83 trillion won. SK hynix shares closed 5.13 percent higher at 841,000 won, although the earnings were released after market close and earlier than scheduled Thursday, coinciding with Samsung Electronics’ earnings call. For the full year, operating profit more than doubled to 47.2 trillion won from 23.47 trillion won in 2024, surpassing Samsung Electronics’ preliminary consolidated operating profit of 43.5 trillion won for 2025. Annual revenue jumped 47 percent year on year to 97.15 trillion won. An operating margin of 49 percent underscored the pricing power of the pure-play chipmaker, meaning nearly half of every won in chip sales translated into operating profit. “Our results demonstrate the outcome of strategic execution that secured both profitability and growth by reinforcing technology leadership and expanding the share of premium products,” SK hynix said in a statement, adding that 2025 marked “a year in which the company once again proved its world-class technological competitiveness.” SK hynix has been enjoying a clear heyday, overtaking long-time industry leader Samsung Electronics in global memory market share in the first half of the year, largely on the back of its leadership in HBM — widely described as the core memory architecture behind Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Despite market speculation over Samsung Electronics’ rapid progress in sixth-generation HBM4, SK hynix is widely believed to have secured nearly 70 percent of supply allocations for Nvidia’s next-generation Rubin platform, scheduled for release this year. Counterpoint Research estimates SK hynix will command around 54 percent of global HBM4 sales this year, compared with 28 percent for Samsung Electronics and 18 percent for Micron. In HBM3, the company accounted for 62 percent of shipments as of June 2025 and 57 percent of revenue as of September. Goldman Sachs expects SK hynix to maintain a comfortable lead in HBM3 through at least 2026, while UBS forecasts the company will capture around 70 percent of the next AI-standard memory market, HBM4. Bank of America, meanwhile, recently described 2026 as a “supercycle comparable to the memory boom of the 1990s,” projecting year-on-year growth of 51 percent in DRAM sales and 45 percent in NAND, with SK hynix positioned as the primary beneficiary of the industry-wide upswing. 2026-01-28 17:11:48 -
AI servers shift toward memory as Samsung moves first with HBM4 rollout SEOUL, January 26 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics has bolted out in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) race as it readies to roll out sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, next month bound for U.S.-based fabless chip leaders Nvidia and AMD. The Korean tech giant has completed final qualification processes with major AI accelerator customers, clearing the transition from sampling to mass production ahead of next-generation chip launches expected later this year. Industry sources said all major memory makers, including SK hynix and Micron, recently resubmitted HBM4 samples in response to Nvidia’s tightened specifications for its upcoming Rubin platform. Samsung is understood to be the first supplier approved for an HBM4 prototype fabricated using its 1c-nanometer DRAM process. An official familiar with the matter said the current stage has moved beyond initial sampling, noting that sample shipments had already been provided to customers toward the end of last year. “Because this involves customer-specific products, it is difficult to confirm detailed internal processes,” the official said. “However, it is accurate to view the current phase as the step following sample shipments.” The official added that mass supply timing is closely linked to customers’ product readiness and launch schedules, and said shipments would proceed in line with those timelines. According to TrendForce, HBM4 is expected to cost at least 30 percent more than current HBM3E products due to the complexity of its new architecture and packaging requirements. Despite the higher price, demand is accelerating. The global HBM market is estimated at around $35 billion in 2025 and is projected to expand to between $52 billion and $61 billion in 2026. Some industry forecasts point to annual sales exceeding $85 billion by 2027 as AI workloads scale rapidly across data centers. The expansion is being driven by surging memory demand from advanced AI accelerators. Nvidia’s Rubin platform is expected to integrate eight stacks of HBM4, delivering total memory capacity of about 288 gigabytes — more than triple that of earlier-generation products. AMD’s next-generation Instinct MI450 accelerator is also expected to adopt HBM4, with memory capacity projected to reach up to 432 gigabytes. Analysts expect the trend to accelerate further, with higher-end Rubin variants likely to adopt 16-high stacking, pushing total memory capacity per processor toward the one-terabyte range. The technological leap from HBM3E to HBM4 represents more than incremental performance gains. HBM4 doubles the input-output interface from 1,024 bits to 2,048 bits, significantly widening the data pathway between processors and memory and addressing what the industry describes as the “memory wall.” While GPU compute performance has continued to scale rapidly, memory bandwidth constraints have increasingly reduced effective utilization rates, particularly during large-scale AI training and inference tasks. Kim Deok-gi, a professor of electronic engineering at Sejong University, said this bottleneck has become more pronounced as AI models require the handling of increasingly large and diverse data sets. “Even though GPU and CPU performance has improved significantly, the time required to move data back and forth has emerged as a limiting factor,” Kim said. “High-bandwidth memory effectively widens the data highway, allowing large volumes of information to be transferred simultaneously.” As AI applications expand toward agent-based systems and physical AI such as autonomous driving, the role of memory has become more central, he added. “In AI systems, computation remains important, but data must first be stored, retrieved and delivered at high speed,” Kim said. “That is why HBM has become a critical component in modern AI servers.” HBM4 also introduces architectural changes at the base-die level. Unlike earlier generations produced largely with memory processes, the logic die at the bottom of HBM stacks is increasingly manufactured using advanced foundry nodes, enabling improved power management, error correction and internal data handling. Industry observers say the shift reinforces a broader transition toward memory-centric AI systems, in which data movement between GPUs and high-bandwidth memory plays a more decisive role than traditional server CPUs. Samsung’s early HBM4 rollout is underpinned by its vertically integrated manufacturing structure as an integrated device manufacturer (IDM). The company controls DRAM production, logic-die manufacturing through its foundry operations, and advanced packaging technologies within a single supply chain. Such integration allows tighter performance optimization and shorter development cycles, particularly as AI chipmakers increasingly request customized memory specifications aligned with their accelerator roadmaps. Competition in the HBM market is expected to intensify as rivals prepare their own next-generation products. SK hynix said it is already operating HBM4 production in line with customer schedules. “With regard to HBM4, you may consider that we are already in mass production,” the company said, adding that specific shipment timing ultimately depends on customer roadmaps. Industry officials note that early commercial availability is becoming a critical differentiator as AI accelerator launch schedules grow more tightly synchronized with memory supply. The HBM4 timeline is expected to be closely watched during earnings conference calls by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, scheduled an hour apart Thursday following their fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. 2026-01-26 15:59:44 -
How Seongsu turned industrial grit into Seoul's coolest address Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in AJP’s Seongsu series, which examines how Seoul’s former factory district transformed into a global hub for pop-ups, brand experiences and new forms of urban consumption. SEOUL, January 23 (AJP) - On a Saturday in Seongsu-dong, a former factory district in eastern Seoul, the first thing you notice is not the clothes. It is the choreography. Pedestrians move in coordinated waves down Yeonmujang-gil, inching past café terraces that have colonized the curb and lines that wrap around buildings that once made things you wore for work — shoes, belts, leather uppers — not things you wore to be seen. Security guards stand where factory foremen once did, but the job has changed: no one is protecting a celebrity. They are managing crowd flow. This is Seongsu-dong, the former industrial quarter that has become Korea’s most influential neighborhood for pop-ups, brand “experiences” and the kind of offline marketing that treats a street like a stage set. It is not the first place in the world to turn warehouses into retail. But it may be among the fastest to do it — and certainly among the most relentless. From making shoes to making a scene Seongsu’s origin story is unromantic by design. Built during Seoul’s industrial expansion of the 1970s and 1980s, the area filled with low-rise factories, leather workshops and auto repair shops. For decades, it was the kind of neighborhood you visited because you needed something fixed. Then Seoul’s trend cycle caught up with it. In the mid-2010s, soaring rents in Garosu-gil and Hongdae pushed young brands and creatives eastward in search of space — real space — and fewer aesthetic expectations. Seongsu offered both. Its buildings were worn and weathered, but they came with high ceilings, wide floor plates and minimal zoning friction. In other words, they were imperfect in exactly the right way. Concrete walls don’t argue with your concept. Brick warehouses photograph well. A former factory can become almost anything with the right lighting — and the right story. After 2020, as the pandemic rewired consumer behavior and e-commerce became frictionless, brands rediscovered physical space not as a point of sale but as a platform for narrative. Shopping became secondary. Presence became the product. The hype, quantified By the end of 2025, Seongsu’s popularity was no longer anecdotal. According to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Metro, daily passenger traffic at Seongsu Station rose from about 66,500 in 2021 to nearly 100,000 in 2025 — an increase of more than 50 percent in just four years. What had once been an unremarkable stop climbed into the top tier of Seoul’s busiest subway stations. Visitor numbers across the broader Seongsu area tell an even sharper story. Annual visits rose from roughly 18 million in 2022 to nearly 29 million in 2024, with projections exceeding 35 million in 2025, based on Seoul tourism data and mobile-based location analysis. The most consequential shift has been who is visiting. Foreign tourists surpassed 3 million in 2024 and are projected to reach 5 million by the end of 2025, drawn by global demand for Korean fashion, beauty and the promise of being physically present where trends appear to be made. Seongsu did not just become popular. It became legible — a recognizable node on the global map of consumption districts. Weekends at capacity On weekdays, Seongsu can still pass for a neighborhood. Office workers from technology, mobility and fashion firms give the streets a utilitarian rhythm. On weekends, the area becomes something else entirely: a living queue. Foot traffic runs 1.5 to 1.8 times higher than weekday levels, with Yeonmujang-gil now one of Seoul’s most congested pedestrian corridors. At peak hours, pedestrian density has reached as high as 7,500 people per hectare — a level officially classified by local authorities as “critically overcrowded.” In response, Seoul and Seongdong District are reviewing safety measures, including redesigned exits and temporary pedestrian-only zones. Inevitably, these interventions risk making Seongsu feel less like an accidental discovery and more like a managed attraction. Still, for many young visitors, the crowds are part of the appeal. “Honestly, Seongsu really took off after COVID,” said Kim Ha-young, 28, a Seoul resident. “Before that, people our age used to go to Itaewon. Now if we make weekend plans, we almost automatically choose Seongsu. It’s hip, and there’s always a pop-up or something new. The chance of a boring outing feels very low.” The pop-up machine To visitors, Seongsu’s pop-up culture can seem spontaneous, as if new stores simply appear and vanish overnight. In reality, it operates more like a touring production. Most brands rely on short-term space rentals that allow them to move in, activate and move out within days. The model depends on rapid installation, high turnover and the understanding that novelty has an expiration date. This structure — not any single brand — is Seongsu’s true engine. It allows dozens of companies to cycle through the same streets each month, continually resetting the neighborhood’s sense of what is new. For global brands, the appeal is obvious. A pop-up in Seongsu is not merely a Korean marketing exercise; it is a content generator with international reach, capable of making a brand feel current without requiring long-term local commitment. Inside the warehouses Few people have witnessed Seongsu’s transformation more closely than Lee Ho Kyu, founder and chief executive of the space platform S Factory. Operating large-scale venues converted from former industrial buildings, S Factory has become one of the district’s most visible anchors. “It didn’t happen overnight,” Lee said. “But it accelerated the moment people started using space differently.” Lee, whose background spans architecture, urban design and real estate consulting, argues that Seongsu’s growth reflects a deeper shift in consumer behavior. “People don’t visit spaces just to buy products anymore,” he said. “They come to understand a story — and to feel part of something, even briefly.” That change, he added, reshaped how brands approached offline marketing. “Pop-ups are no longer temporary shops,” Lee said. “They’re communication tools.” At S Factory, spaces are designed to reset quickly — sometimes within days — allowing brands to operate in extremely short cycles. In recent months, the venue has hosted a wide range of fashion, beauty and lifestyle activations targeting younger consumers. Long queues outside its brick warehouses have become one of Seongsu’s most familiar weekend images. The sustainability question beneath the cool Success, however, has consequences. Seongsu’s rise has brought higher rents, heavier congestion and a growing question about sustainability — not only environmental sustainability, but civic sustainability. How many pop-ups can a neighborhood absorb before it becomes a mall without walls? How long can an “experimental” district remain experimental once it requires crowd management plans? There is an irony at the heart of Seongsu’s appeal. Its industrial past made its reinvention possible. Buildings built to last were reused rather than demolished, their structural bones carrying a new form of commerce. Adaptive reuse, in this sense, is a kind of urban recycling. But the pop-up economy also produces its own waste: disposable sets, packaging debris, installations designed to last just long enough for a weekend of photographs. Low-commitment retail, by nature, leaves things behind. For now, Seongsu remains Seoul’s most experimental shopping district precisely because it is still unfinished — fluid rather than polished, provisional rather than resolved. Brands continue to come not because it is perfect, but because it feels alive. And as long as consumers keep seeking places where commerce can pass for culture — and where a purchase can masquerade as a memory — the lines on Yeonmujang-gil are unlikely to thin anytime soon. Seongsu, after all, is no longer just a place to shop. It is a place to be seen waiting. 2026-01-23 10:03:57 -
Walmart sends senior delegation to Seoul to expand shelf presence of K-beauty as U.S. demand rises SEOUL, January 22 (AJP) - As Korean beauty products climb U.S. sales rankings, retail giant Walmart is moving to expand their shelf presence, dispatching senior buying executives to Seoul to scout new K-beauty brands. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) on Thursday, a twelve-member Walmart buying delegation — including six vice presidents and senior purchasing executives — visited Seoul this week to hold one-on-one business consultations with local cosmetics companies. The visit reflects surging demand in the U.S. market. South Korea’s beauty exports rose 12.3 percent last year to a record $11.4 billion, with shipments to the United States accounting for the largest share at nearly 20 percent, or $2.19 billion. For the first time, exports to the U.S. surpassed those to China. The shift is prompting offline retailers to step more aggressively into the U.S. beauty market, traditionally dominated by established specialty chains such as Sephora. CJ Group’s beauty retailer Olive Young is set to open its first U.S. brick-and-mortar store in Pasadena, California, in May 2026, marking its formal entry into the world’s largest beauty market. The company has said the U.S. launch will focus primarily on skincare products, reflecting global demand trends and long-standing consumer perceptions of K-beauty. Walmart has identified K-beauty as a potential growth driver for its beauty division, prompting the retailer to send key decision-makers to assess product competitiveness and market fit, KOTRA said. A total of 57 Korean cosmetics companies, pre-screened and handpicked by KOTRA, participated in the consultations, presenting skincare and functional beauty products tailored to U.S. consumer demand. At Walmart’s request, the list of participating firms was not disclosed due to confidentiality concerns. “This was an exceptional case,” a KOTRA official said. “It was the first time such a large number of senior decision-makers participated in a single program, and we hope to make this a regular initiative and further strengthen it.” The official added that discussions with Walmart began during last year’s Korean Wave Expo in New York. “We previously held talks with Walmart at the New York expo,” the official said. “Given the retailer’s strong interest in K-beauty and consumer products, the needs of both sides aligned particularly well this time.” Walmart plans to first test consumer response through its online platform before considering expansion into physical stores across the U.S. according to KOTRA. Several participating companies said the consultations offered rare access to U.S. retail decision-makers at a time of shifting global trade conditions. Walmart officials, meanwhile, said Korean beauty brands demonstrated strong product quality and competitiveness during the meetings. KOTRA said it aims to build a longer-term cooperation framework with Walmart, supporting Korean firms’ entry into the retailer’s online marketplace and, eventually, its nationwide brick-and-mortar network. 2026-01-22 11:44:04 -
Samsung's foldable lead holds as Apple's entry nears SEOUL, January 21 (AJP) - Selfies taken by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have served diplomatic and branding purposes alongside their social media role. During a state visit to Beijing, selfies were taken on a Xiaomi smartphone gifted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. More recently, photos during Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Seoul were taken on a Samsung Electronics device. President Lee gifted Meloni a pink Galaxy Z Flip 7, matching the prime minister’s well-known preference for the color. While the idea of gifting a smartphone may echo Xi’s earlier gesture, it also underscored Seoul’s confidence in Samsung’s foldable leadership — a category the company pioneered and continues to dominate. Foldable smartphones have moved beyond novelty into the ultra-premium segment as durability, performance and software optimization have improved. The appeal now extends beyond design and status to functionality, particularly larger, tablet-like displays that enable multitasking and productivity. Market research firm Counterpoint Research forecasts global foldable smartphone panel shipments will rise 46 percent in 2026, signaling renewed expansion after several years of uneven demand. Foldable smartphone shipments are expected to grow about 14 percent in 2025 before accelerating to roughly 38 percent in 2026. Grand View Research estimates the global foldable smartphone market at $27.79 billion in 2024 and projects it will more than double to $74 billion by 2030, growing at an average annual rate of 13.5 percent. Much of the renewed traction is expected to come from Apple’s entry into the segment. “Apple’s entry into the foldable market will act as a key growth driver,” said Guillaume Chansin, research director at Counterpoint Research. “The launch of a foldable iPhone is expected to reinvigorate the foldable smartphone segment and significantly boost panel shipments in 2026.” Despite the looming competition, Samsung Display is expected to remain the dominant supplier of foldable OLED panels, with its global market share projected to exceed 50 percent. The growing adoption of book-style foldables is also expected to lift average selling prices, Counterpoint said. The market is also shifting in form factor. While clamshell-style models such as the Galaxy Z Flip series continue to attract attention for their compact design and fashion appeal, book-style foldables are gaining a larger share of value and profitability, driven by demand for bigger screens and productivity-oriented use cases. Multi-fold devices, including tri-fold models, are expected to account for only a low single-digit share of the market in 2026. Samsung strengthened its position in 2025 after regaining momentum in the premium foldable segment. The company held about 64 percent of the global foldable smartphone market in the third quarter of 2025, up from 56 percent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research. Analysts say 2026 could mark a turning point as foldables transition from niche products to a more established premium category amid intensifying competition. “Brand loyalty between Apple and Samsung remains strong, but younger consumers are becoming less defined by legacy preferences,” said Park Jung-eun, a professor of business administration at Ewha Womans University. “Among Gen Z users, there is growing interest in differentiation and design-driven devices rather than simply following long-standing brand norms.” Samsung Electronics said it was unable to confirm whether the device had been provided as part of any sponsorship arrangement. Whether heightened visibility and renewed momentum translate into sustained growth will depend on pricing, software optimization and competition — particularly as Apple prepares to enter the foldable arena. 2026-01-21 15:33:32 -
AI memory becomes security concern in Korea as HBM leaks to China rise SEOUL, January 20 (AJP) - High-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component powering artificial intelligence chips, is emerging as a national security concern in South Korea as technology leaks involving advanced semiconductors increasingly flow to China amid intensifying global competition in AI. The National Police Agency said industrial espionage investigations last year led to the arrest of 378 suspects, including six detentions, in cases involving advanced technologies such as AI-related semiconductors. According to data released by the National Office of Investigation, authorities detected 179 technology-leakage cases in 2025, including 33 involving overseas transfers. More than half of those overseas cases — 18 incidents, or 54.5 percent — were linked to China, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and the United States. Among overseas leakage cases, semiconductors accounted for the largest share of strategically sensitive technologies, alongside displays and secondary batteries. Several incidents involved memory-related technologies designated as “national core technologies” under South Korean law. HBM, which stacks multiple DRAM chips to sharply boost data-processing speed, has become indispensable for AI accelerators used in data centers operated by global technology firms such as Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Unlike conventional memory used in smartphones and personal computers, HBM is tightly integrated with graphics processing units (GPUs) through advanced packaging processes, making it difficult to substitute and leaving production highly concentrated among a small group of suppliers. South Korea is home to the world’s two dominant HBM producers — Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — positioning the country at the center of the global AI memory supply chain while also exposing it to heightened security risks. “The scale and frequency of recent technology leaks have raised serious concerns within the industry,” said a Samsung Electronics industry official. “HBM is no longer just a memory product but a core infrastructure technology that determines the performance of AI systems,” said Kim Ki-duk, a professor of semiconductor engineering at Sejong University. Kim said China has made sustained efforts to narrow the technology gap by recruiting experienced engineers with long careers in memory development, adding that accumulated know-how is difficult to contain once engineers cross borders. “Even without physically transferring documents, engineers inevitably carry knowledge acquired through years of work,” he said. Industry officials said the strategic value of HBM has risen sharply as artificial intelligence becomes embedded not only in corporate systems but also in consumer-facing services, driving rapid growth in GPU-based computing. As a result, memory chips are increasingly viewed not merely as electronic components but as infrastructure assets critical to national competitiveness and security. Police data showed that small and mid-sized firms accounted for nearly 87 percent of technology-leakage victims, underscoring vulnerabilities in supply-chain security as advanced semiconductor ecosystems expand. Kim cautioned that while stricter regulations and tougher penalties may slow technology leakage, they are unlikely to halt China’s catch-up efforts entirely. “China’s progress can be delayed, but it will continue,” he said, adding that sustained investment in next-generation memory technologies would be essential for South Korea to maintain its lead. The issue is adding pressure on policymakers and chipmakers as South Korea navigates tightening U.S. export controls, intensifying U.S.-China technology rivalry and growing demands to protect core technologies underpinning its AI-era growth. “Rather than focusing solely on punitive measures, companies and policymakers need to address the root causes driving skilled engineers to leave, including incentives and research environments,” said Lee Soo-jun, a professor of business administration at Sejong University. 2026-01-20 16:53:00