Journalist

Baek Seo-hyun
  • Socar to Launch 150 Billion Won Self-Driving Unit; Krafton to Invest 65 Billion Won
    Socar to Launch 150 Billion Won Self-Driving Unit; Krafton to Invest 65 Billion Won Socar said it is pushing to set up a self-driving-focused subsidiary with planned investment of 150 billion won, a level it described as among the largest in South Korea’s autonomous driving services sector. Video game company Krafton will join the project as a strategic investor. Socar said Thursday the new company is expected to be established in May. Socar CEO Park Jae-wook, who has led the company’s autonomous driving initiatives, will also serve as CEO of the new unit and oversee the business directly, it said. As part of the partnership, Krafton will make a 65 billion won strategic investment in Socar through a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase, Socar said. Krafton will become a major shareholder of Socar and will also make a separate investment in the new subsidiary as a core investor, the company said. Socar said it plans to participate in forming the new unit by contributing cash and data assets, pending board approval. Socar said the project is being viewed as an unprecedented private-sector collaboration aimed at accelerating commercialization of autonomous driving services in South Korea, as well as one of the largest investments of its kind. The company said it will concentrate 15 years of accumulated autonomous driving data and mobility platform operating capabilities into the new unit. It said that through its “Future Mobility TF,” launched earlier this year, it built a centralized data pipeline that collects real-time driving data based on its car-sharing fleet of about 25,000 vehicles, totaling about 1.1 million kilometers of real-world driving per day. Socar said it has also secured a range of edge-case data, including about 220,000 accident records, and processed the data — including anonymization, time synchronization and tag labeling — into a format that can be used immediately for AI training. It said the work is helping speed efforts to commercialize autonomous driving services. Socar said the new unit will pursue a phased commercialization strategy, starting with Level 2 car-sharing services and later expanding into fully autonomous, consumer-facing services such as Level 4 ride-hailing. It said it will work to internalize technology while validating it in real-world services, build independent technical and operational capabilities, and pursue partnerships to compete in both domestic and global markets. “Our goal goes beyond simply developing autonomous driving technology — it is to commercialize it successfully and fundamentally change how users move and their quality of life,” Park said. “Based on the data and operational know-how Socar has built over 15 years, we will create a new standard for the future mobility market.” An industry official said Socar is effectively the only company with large-scale real-world driving data accumulated by everyday users. “This kind of data is a unique competitive advantage that cannot be built in a short period of time,” the official said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-30 16:49:52
  • Kakao Games Bets on New Releases to Rebound, Expanding Globally to PC and Consoles
    Kakao Games Bets on New Releases to Rebound, Expanding Globally to PC and Consoles Kakao Games said it is preparing to shift back to growth by rolling out multiple new titles, with a strategy centered on expanding beyond mobile into PC and console games and a broader global push. The company said on the 30th it will sequentially launch major new games through next year to diversify its business structure and expand overall scale. It plans to strengthen mid- to long-term competitiveness by adding large global-targeted projects and expanding into new genres. In the third quarter, Lionheart Studio is set to release the MMORPG “Odin Q,” a follow-up that expands the “Odin: Valhalla Rising” universe. The game features Unreal Engine 5 graphics and a seamless open world, and is expected to become a next-generation flagship title on the back of the original “Odin’s” steady performance. Around the same time, Supercat is also targeting a release for “Project OQ,” which uses 2.5D pixel art and a distinct setting to offer a different experience from traditional MMORPGs. The company said testing has shown a high level of polish. Kakao Games is also strengthening its PC and console lineup for overseas markets. XLGAMES’ “ArcheAge Chronicle” is scheduled for a global test in June, highlighting console-grade combat presentation and an IP-based world. “Chrono Odyssey,” an AAA action RPG, is targeting release in the first quarter of next year, combining an open world with a time-manipulation system. The company is expanding into additional genres as well. “Dungeon Arise,” an action RPG that blends strategy and progression elements, is scheduled for release in the second quarter and will support both mobile and PC. “God Save Birmingham,” an open-world survival game set in the medieval era, is in development with a fourth-quarter release target. “Project C,” a subculture-based collectible RPG, is also planned to target global fans. Kakao Games said it will continue stable operations for existing live-service titles. Major MMORPGs including “Odin,” “Ares” and “ArcheAge War” have maintained user metrics through regular updates, it said. “Uma Musume Pretty Derby” has also built a loyal fan base through stable service. “Path of Exile 2” is expected to rebound with a major expansion update in May. A Kakao Games official said the company will release a range of new titles with a high level of quality while keeping existing services stable. The official said Kakao Games will strengthen its growth foundation by expanding globally and diversifying genres.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-30 15:04:01
  • Naver Q1 revenue jumps 16.3% on commerce and AI growth; operating profit up 7.2%
    Naver Q1 revenue jumps 16.3% on commerce and AI growth; operating profit up 7.2% Naver posted double-digit first-quarter revenue growth on expanding commerce and artificial intelligence-driven businesses, and said it will move to strengthen its commerce competitiveness in the second half, including introducing membership-based unlimited free shipping. Naver said Wednesday that first-quarter consolidated revenue rose to 3.2411 trillion won and operating profit to 541.8 billion won. Revenue increased 16.3% from a year earlier and operating profit rose 7.2%. The company said results were driven by growth in core businesses through AI integration and an expansion of its consumer-to-consumer, or C2C, operations. It said it maintained profitability despite infrastructure investment to bolster AI capabilities. Naver also reorganized its business structure, shifting from five areas — search platform, commerce, fintech, content and enterprise — to three pillars: Naver Platform, Financial Platform and Global Challenge. Revenue by segment was 1.8398 trillion won for Naver Platform, 459.7 billion won for Financial Platform and 941.6 billion won for Global Challenge. Naver Platform revenue rose 14.7% from a year earlier. Advertising revenue grew 9.3%, which the company attributed to its AI-based targeting enhancement solution, “AdBoost,” adding that AI accounted for more than half of advertising revenue growth. Service revenue climbed on commerce, rising 35.6% from a year earlier, led by Naver Plus Store, membership and N Delivery, the company said. Naver Plus Store’s app has become a key transaction channel, CEO Choi Soo-yeon said on an earnings conference call. “Transaction volume on the Naver Plus Store app rose 28% from the previous quarter, outpacing overall growth,” Choi said, adding that the purchase conversion rate also increased meaningfully. She said time spent in the app has more than doubled since its launch, and that its purchase conversion rate is 84% higher than on the web. Naver said it is accelerating efforts to improve delivery competitiveness. “We will push to convert key products to N Delivery and expand direct fulfillment contracts,” Choi said. “In the second half, we plan to introduce unlimited free shipping linked to membership.” Financial Platform revenue rose 18.9% from a year earlier to 459.7 billion won. Naver Pay payment volume in the first quarter totaled 24.2 trillion won, up 23.4% from a year earlier. Naver said it plans to strengthen its online-to-offline competitiveness by linking offline payment data with place data, centered on “Npay Connect.” Global Challenge revenue rose 18.4% from a year earlier to 941.6 billion won, driven by growth in its C2C business. C2C revenue — including Poshmark, Kream, Soda and Wallapop — jumped 57.7% from a year earlier, the company said. The enterprise business also grew 18.8% on expansion of AI and digital twin operations. “Naver is a platform that holds search, commerce and payment infrastructure in a single flow,” Choi said. “Through our action-oriented AI strategy, we will strengthen both user experience and monetization while expanding global business opportunities.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-30 14:21:51
  • CJ ENM Unveils AI-Assisted Feature Film, Says Costs and Time Cut Up to Sevenfold
    CJ ENM Unveils AI-Assisted Feature Film, Says Costs and Time Cut Up to Sevenfold “Watching a shot that wouldn’t come together for days get solved at once with AI made me realize how important technology is in content production.” Jung Chang-ik, head of CJ ENM’s AI Studio team, made the remarks April 30 at the “CJ ENM 2026 AI Culture Talk” event at CGV Yongsan I’Park Mall in Seoul. CJ ENM used the event to debut “Apartment (The House),” a hybrid feature film combining AI and live-action footage, and said it signals a shift in how films are made. The film was completed on a total budget of about 500 million won. CJ ENM estimated that producing it through conventional methods would have cost at least five times more. Filming was completed in just four days. The company said the project was an “efficiency experiment” aimed at cutting both cost and time while maintaining quality. CJ ENM said the key approach was to use AI to create all backgrounds and visual effects, while keeping the actors’ performances live. Actors were filmed against a green screen, then combined with AI tools for image generation, retouching and video generation. Google’s generative AI solutions, including Imagen, Nano Banana and Veo, were applied across the production pipeline. Jung said the team maximized efficiency by shooting indoors without moving to locations. He said backgrounds were simulated in detail during preproduction so actors could perform as if they were seeing the real environment on set. CJ ENM also discussed technical limits. Jung said combining different AI solutions can produce uneven color and detail, making digital color grading in postproduction more important. “Each AI output has different color characteristics, so standardizing them is essential,” he said. “The technology has advanced, but the production process still needs refinement.” CJ ENM said it does not see AI as a replacement for actors. The company said authentic acting is difficult for AI to substitute, and that a hybrid model — preserving performance while using AI for backgrounds and effects — is the most practical approach for now. Actor Kim Shin-yong said being able to see AI backgrounds and effects on set helped him stay immersed. He said it was easier to act than in traditional chroma-key shoots. Kim added that AI should be a tool that creates more opportunities to produce content, rather than replacing actors. Baek Hyun-jung, head of content innovation at CJ ENM, said efficiency gains vary by genre and directing style, but that films could see five- to sevenfold cost efficiency. She said the challenge is to use AI not simply to lower budgets, but to raise quality. Baek also highlighted a strategic partnership with Google, saying the company has foundation models strong in realistic depiction. She said CJ ENM is expanding cooperation to move beyond basic generative AI toward “narrative AI,” where storytelling and direction are central. Ahn Sung-min, director of customer engineering at Google Cloud, said AI is a tool to realize creators’ intent, not to replace creativity. He said production quality was improved by precisely analyzing video elements and generating results with consistency. Looking ahead, CJ ENM said the distinction between AI films and conventional films will gradually fade. As computer graphics once expanded the industry, the company said AI will broaden production scale and expressive range. CJ ENM said it expects AI use in film production to expand in earnest starting in the second half of the year. A CJ ENM official said the goal is to apply AI across planning, production, distribution and marketing to strengthen global competitiveness, while advancing the technology and building an industry ecosystem in parallel. 2026-04-30 13:45:21
  • Naver Cloud CEO named co-chair of South Korea’s K-AI Partnership
    Naver Cloud CEO named co-chair of South Korea’s K-AI Partnership Kim You-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, has been appointed co-chair of the government-led K-AI Partnership, taking a leading role in building South Korea’s AI cooperation ecosystem and supporting global expansion. Naver Cloud said Tuesday it was selected as a co-chair organization of the K-AI Partnership alongside the Korea Association of AI and Software Industry (KOSA). Launched under the leadership of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the K-AI Partnership is described as the country’s first integrated public-private cooperation body bringing together industry, academia and research. It was formed to pool national capabilities for AI transformation and to support joint overseas expansion by large companies and small and midsize firms amid intensifying global competition in AI. Unlike groups focused mainly on academic exchange, it aims for an execution-driven structure that moves from identifying on-the-ground industry demand to business matching and generating export results. Cho Joon-hee, KOSA chairman, and Kim will serve as co-chairs. The partnership is designed to combine association leadership with private-sector participation, covering the broader industry while operating on practical technological competitiveness, the company said. Naver Cloud said it has demonstrated its capabilities through major national AI projects and has worked as a bridge between the public and private sectors while pursuing shared growth with small businesses and startups. Based on that experience, the company said it will support the partnership’s business model design and technical cooperation. It also plans to help strengthen AI competitiveness by combining large companies’ infrastructure with startups’ innovative technologies, and to serve as a field-focused channel for policy improvements by reflecting participating companies’ views. “AI is a field that is difficult to complete with the capabilities of individual companies alone, and the scale of cooperation directly translates into competitiveness,” Kim said. “A true AI ecosystem will be built when the infrastructure and technological strength of large companies, the execution power of small businesses and startups, and the research capabilities of industry, academia and research institutes come together.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:45:16
  • Naver upgrades AI Cleanbot 3.0 to better block hateful, abusive comments
    Naver upgrades AI Cleanbot 3.0 to better block hateful, abusive comments Naver is tightening controls on hateful comments tied to suicide, death and accidents, saying the move is aimed at fostering a healthier comment environment. The company said April 29 it has completed an upgrade to its abusive-comment detection system, AI Cleanbot 3.0. Under the upgrade, Naver said it will focus on blocking comments that encourage disregard for life, including references to suicide, death and bodily harm, as well as comments that mock, demean or express hatred toward victims of incidents and accidents and their bereaved families. Naver said AI Cleanbot 3.0 has also strengthened detection by factoring in the context of news articles. It analyzes not only user comments but also article headlines and body text to more precisely identify malicious expressions in context. First introduced in 2019, AI Cleanbot has been updated through technical and policy changes to keep pace with new slang and evolving hate expressions. It initially focused on detecting profanity and vulgar language based on abusive keywords, but from 2020 it expanded to identify insulting expressions even without explicit profanity by using sentence context. Naver said it has continued to enhance the system to block sexually offensive expressions, hateful, demeaning or discriminatory remarks, and attempts to evade filters using symbols and characters. The company also said it has worked with related organizations, including reflecting the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization’s hate-speech self-regulatory policy guidelines introduced in 2023. Kim Su-hyang, a Naver leader, said the company is continuously improving Cleanbot so it can detect not only profanity and vulgar language but also newly emerging hateful, demeaning and discriminatory expressions. She said Naver will intensively block malicious comments that encourage disregard for life or mock victims and bereaved families, while continuing to upgrade the technology by reflecting a range of opinions. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:25:11
  • Kakao Adds ‘Share Together’ Feature for KakaoTalk Gift Vouchers
    Kakao Adds ‘Share Together’ Feature for KakaoTalk Gift Vouchers Kakao has launched a “Share Together” feature on KakaoTalk Gift that allows users to use gift vouchers with family members and other contacts. Kakao said April 29 that it added a new “Share Together” tab to the KakaoTalk gift box, enabling vouchers previously stored for individual use to be shared with members of a family account. Previously, sharing a voucher often required taking a screenshot or copying and sending a message. Kakao said the new feature reduces those steps and makes it easier to use vouchers directly within the gift box. To use it, users can create a family account in the “Share Together” tab or join an existing account by invitation. Linked members can view and manage shared vouchers in the gift box without separately sharing images. Members can also check expiration dates and whether a voucher has been used in real time. Notifications are sent when a voucher is used to help prevent duplicate use, Kakao said. Kakao said it plans to expand voucher use from an individual-centered model to a shared experience among family and friends and to continue improving the user experience for the service. A Kakao official said the feature focuses on making vouchers more flexible to use while strengthening connections among members. “We will continue to upgrade the service so users can enjoy a more convenient and richer gift experience,” the official said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:12:19
  • NHN Dooray! Unveils AI Agent to Automate Workflows, Targets Finance Sector Growth
    NHN Dooray! Unveils AI Agent to Automate Workflows, Targets Finance Sector Growth “Generative AI used to talk. Now it acts. If a project is delayed, it finds the work on its own, messages the right people, and summarizes the results and leaves them in the wiki. Dooray AI will be a ‘member’ that works with you, not just a tool,” Baek Chang-yeol, CEO of NHN Dooray, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Pangyo. Baek said collaboration software is shifting from assistance to execution, as companies move beyond simple Q&A to “AI agents” that carry out tasks. NHN Dooray introduced a new “Dooray AI Agent” built into its collaboration platform, Dooray!, and outlined adoption results and its strategy focused on the public and financial sectors. The company launched its subscription-based AI service, DoorayAI, in 2024. Baek said the new agent is a step forward, moving from summarizing email and messenger content to taking actions based on data. He said the agent can automatically detect delayed tasks in a project and notify the person in charge, or capture meeting discussions in real time and turn them into documents. “The agent joins as the same kind of member as a person, entering messenger chats and projects to work alongside employees,” he said. Baek said the capability comes from Dooray’s data structure, which integrates personal tools such as email, messenger and calendars with shared spaces such as projects and wikis, allowing the AI to understand context and act. “For AI to work properly, you need not only personal data but also an organization’s shared data,” he said, calling Dooray’s coverage of both areas a competitive strength. NHN Dooray said revenue in its software-as-a-service business has been growing about 40% a year, and it has maintained the top position in the public sector by number of institutions served. In finance, it said it has secured 25 institutions, including Woori Financial Group and IBK Industrial Bank of Korea. Baek said winning 25 finance references in a year was a result the market would not easily expect from a small organization, and said it showed both service quality and speed of expansion. At the briefing, Woori Financial shared its rollout. Yoon Jong-pil, a deputy general manager in the ICT Planning Department at Woori Financial Holdings, said network-separation environments had made it difficult to use subscription software or generative AI for internal work, which he said went beyond inconvenience and hurt competitiveness. Woori reviewed SaaS-based collaboration tools to address the issue, comparing about 10 solutions, domestic and foreign, before choosing Dooray, Yoon said. He cited price competitiveness, ease of customization, and an all-in-one structure integrating email, messenger and task management. Yoon said usage rose sharply after adoption. Connections that were about 1,600 at the early stage of internal-network deployment in March 2025 have increased to more than 30,000 a month, he said. He added that generative AI use has moved from simple testing to use in actual financial work. “At first, there were many curiosity-driven questions, but now it has become a practical tool that improves productivity,” Yoon said, adding that 88% rated it positively in an employee satisfaction survey. Baek said market conditions are also turning favorable as the Financial Services Commission eases network-separation rules, lowering barriers to SaaS and AI adoption and accelerating cloud transitions in finance. He said approvals used to take significant time, but adoption can now move quickly if security standards are met, calling it an opportunity for Dooray, which he said already meets the standards. NHN Dooray said it plans to make growth in finance a core pillar this year, and it expects financial-sector revenue to grow about sevenfold from a year earlier as more institutions prepare new deployments. “In the end, AI is about how much you can automate and make work more efficient,” Baek said. He said Dooray lowered barriers to AI adoption with a structure that can be deployed with a few clicks, and is now expanding into actual task execution through agents. He added that with results proven in security-sensitive areas such as finance and the public sector, adoption could spread faster. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 11:21:33
  • Naver Launches Beta ‘AI Tab’ to Shift Search Toward Chat-Style Answers
    Naver Launches Beta ‘AI Tab’ to Shift Search Toward Chat-Style Answers Typing into Naver’s search bar, “Recommend a cafe near Seoul Station that’s good to visit with my parents,” produced a conversational list of suggestions a few seconds later. Instead of simply listing links, the service interpreted the request’s context and returned an answer. Naver said Monday it has launched its AI Tab for Naver Plus Membership users. The feature provides customized responses based on a user’s intent and context, and the company plans to expand it to all users and to the mobile main screen in the first half of the year. Unlike traditional keyword search that displays a results list, AI Tab is built as a chat-style exchange. In testing, it showed an on-screen workflow — “answer planning → information search → answer generation → summary” — and took about five seconds to analyze and produce a response. The recommendations differed from simple popularity rankings. For the “good with parents” condition, it suggested places based on factors such as spacing between seats, store atmosphere and accessibility, and attached a summarized digest of visitor reviews to each listing. The review summaries focused mainly on recent posts written from February through April, the company said. AI Tab generates answers using Naver’s own services, including Place, blogs and cafes, and draws heavily on detailed visitor reviews to produce results. The report also compared the feature with “Gemini in Chrome.” For the same query, Google drew on a wide range of outside sources such as blogs, social media and travel platforms, but some results cited 2024 posts, raising limits on timeliness. Naver’s internal tests reportedly reached a similar conclusion: It may be difficult to claim a clear edge over global AI for general questions, but the company sees stronger competitiveness in local services such as finding places and making reservations, supported by links to its existing platforms. Naver is positioning AI Tab as more than an added feature, calling it a “shift in the search paradigm.” The company aims to move beyond keyword-based search by combining AI with separate services — including shopping, maps and finance — into a single integrated experience. It plans to expand use by connecting domain-specific AI agents, including for shopping and finance, to AI Tab. The service is currently a beta limited to membership users, with constraints on features and access. Naver said it will incorporate user feedback to improve response speed and deliver more precise answers to complex, multi-step follow-up questions. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-28 15:42:47
  • T map Launches ‘Open Profile’ to Let Users Share Reviews and Saved Places
    T map Launches ‘Open Profile’ to Let Users Share Reviews and Saved Places T map Mobility has introduced an “Open Profile” feature that lets users share information with one another. The company said April 28 that the new tool in the T map app allows users to bundle their reviews and saved places into a single profile and share it with other users. Open Profile can be set up in the app’s “MY” tab. Users can add a profile photo and nickname and link external social media accounts to build a personal profile. Saved places are managed as “saved groups,” allowing users to create and share themed lists. Each group can be set to public, limited, or private. Public lists can be viewed by other users, while limited lists are accessible via a link. Other users’ Open Profiles can be viewed through a review writer’s profile, and public saved groups can be added to a user’s own lists. T map Mobility said it aims to broaden user-to-user sharing and increase the amount of data people can reference when searching for places. To mark the launch, the company is running an event through next month’s 6, awarding T map points to users who create a new profile or set a saved group to public. Jeon Chang-geun, T map Mobility’s chief product officer, said the core of Open Profile is that “users’ preferences and travel experiences are naturally shared, creating new discovery and connections,” adding that the company will “continue to strengthen social features based on user participation.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-28 09:09:24