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Naver breached fair trade act: Nat'l Assembly

A Naver official explains the internet company's new design for its mobile application platform at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on Nov. 16, 2018. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulBy Kim Jae-heunNaver has breached the fair trade act by limiting what a customer sees in search results to only what can be purchased with its payment system Naver Pay, the National Assembly Research Service (NARS) said Monday. The legislative research agency added this case could also be seen as an act of monopoly power abuse. Naver is a dominant player in the local search engine market with 74.7 percent of people in the country using the service as of 2017. Currently, when a customer searches for a certain product on Naver, it does not show products that can be purchased with other payment systems like SSG Pay, Samsung Pay or Kakao Pay. The NARS sees this as a wrongful way of attracting customers from its competitors' platforms and restricting their opportunity to pay with their systems. Rep. Chun Jae-soo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) requested the legislative search agency to look

Oct 5, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Naver breached fair trade act: Nat'l Assembly
Companies

CJ Group may sell more subsidiaries

CJ ENM headquarters in Mapo-gu, western Seoul / Yonhap By Kim Jae-heunAfter disposing of its coffee shop chain, A Twosome Place, last year and putting its bakery franchise Tous Les Jours on the market in September, CJ Group may sell more of its subsidiaries to fully focus on its main businesses. Three years ago, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun declared his vision of “World Best CJ,” in which his three companies in the food, logistics and entertainment sectors will become world No. 1s.More specifically, CJ Cheil Jedang, CJ Logistics and CJ ENM are getting full support from Lee with hopes of achieving his goal. The first step was to sell off A Twosome Place to Anchor Equity Partners, a private equity fund based in Hong Kong, for 270 billion won. The brand was the second biggest coffee chain in the country with 910 stores before it was sold.Last month, CJ Group announced it would dispose of its bakery chain ― also the No. 2 player in the market. Four local private equit

Oct 4, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
CJ Group may sell more subsidiaries
Companies

Woowa Brothers founder and Delivery Hero CEO to attend National Assembly inspection

Woowa Brothers founder Kim Bong-jin. / Korea times photo by Ryu Hyo-jinBy Kim Jae-heunWoowa Brothers founder Kim Bong-jin, and Delivery Hero Korea CEO Kang Shin-bong will attend a National Assembly audit Thursday to answer questions on how food delivery service firms will seek mutual growth with small business owners.The two leaders were selected as witnesses by the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, And Startups Committee to speak during the government audit of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. They were summoned for an earlier audit in 2018 as representatives of two leading food delivery players in the local market. Woowa Brothers and Delivery Hero operate Baedal Minjok (Baemin) and Yogiyo, respectively. They are the dominant players with more than a 90 percent market share when combined.Once the government approves a proposed billion-dollar merger between the two firms, the merged entity will have “absolute power” over restaurant owners who develop their businesses using Baemin and Yogiyo. Woowa Brothers was already under scrutiny in June for violating some clauses legisl

Oct 4, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Woowa Brothers founder and Delivery Hero CEO to attend National Assembly inspection
Companies

Kakao TV to differentiate itself from YouTube

Kakao TV's original programs / Courtesy of Kakao MBy Kim Jae-huenKorean internet company Kakao is already witnessing a huge success with its original shows that garnered an accumulated 13 million views in only a week. The industry is on alert over the appearance of the Kakao TV platform, which is operated by Kakao M, an entertainment company affiliated with the IT giant. Kakao's popularity hinges on the country's most used mobile messaging app Kakao Talk, via which users can access its video streaming service platform. For this reason, Kakao TV has been anticipated to become a new rival for YouTube and Netflix that are dominating the market here. However, Kakao TV said it has no plans to compete against those strong players and it will focus on creating a new market for itself. Launched on Sept. 1, Kakao TV first released five shows and two series online. After just a week, a total 2.6 million people have registered as users. Its original show “Face ID” starring former K-pop singer Lee Hyo-ri recorded 7 million views in only two weeks. Face ID is a reality shows that port

Oct 2, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Kakao TV to differentiate itself from YouTube
Companies

FTC's new fair trade law aims to curb Naver, Kakao, Woowa Brothers

Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairperson Joh Sung-wook speaks during a press briefing at the government complex building in Sejong City, Monday. / YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunThe top antitrust watchdog on Monday revealed its new proposed bill that aims to prevent local online platform operators from abusing their power in the market. As many people begin to order food and groceries online, the hierarchical market structure has put platform operators on top of small and medium enterprises carrying out business there.One of the biggest problems that the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) will tackle is the lack of written contracts between the two parties. Previously, some platform operators had forced small business owners to make verbal agreements when closing deals and did not provide any supporting documentation related to opening a market or restaurant online. This allowed the platform firms to avoid the blame when customers bring up a problem related to the product or service they purchased. The antitrust watchdog will fine the platform operator up to double the amount of losses that a s

Sep 28, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
FTC's new fair trade law aims to curb Naver, Kakao, Woowa Brothers
Companies

Shake Shack introduces Gochujang menu items in Korea only

Gochujang burgers and fries menu / Courtesy of SPC GroupBy Kim Jae-heunAmerican fast casual restaurant chain Shake Shack will introduce a new Gochujang Chicken Shack burger today exclusively for Korea, local operator SPC Group said Monday. The special new burger was invented by Shake Shack culinary director Mark Rosati, who was inspired by traditional Korean food when he visited Seoul.Gochujang Chicken Shack comprises of chicken breast cooked sous-vide style with gochujang, or red chili paste, on the top and kimchi inside. Shake Shack also introduced the Gochujang Shack burger with extra gochujang sauce mixed with mayonnaise. Alongside the two burgers, there are Gochujang Fries that can be ordered as part of a meal set. They come with hot mayonnaise sauce, red pepper powder and chopped chives placed on top of crinkle-cut fries. Gochujang Chicken Shack, Gochujang Shack and Gochujang Fries cost 9,500 won, 9,800 won and 5,400 won, respectively. The three will be available for limited sales through October.If they receive positive feedback and sell well here, they will be sold in other c

Sep 28, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Shake Shack introduces Gochujang menu items in Korea only
Companies

No tomatoes in McDonald's, Burger King burgers

A notice on Burger King's Korean website reads that burgers will have more vegetables and sauce added to compensate for the lack of tomato slices. / Screen capture from the Burger King Korea websiteBy Kim Jae-heunBurgers from fast food brands here, including McDonald's and Burger King, will be served without tomato slices for an undetermined period due to a shortage of supply here. This summer the country went through the longest rainy season in Korea's history, and a number of typhoons hit the peninsula, making it almost impossible for farmers to harvest enough tomatoes.The fast food restaurants have decided to either replace the tomato slices with other ingredients or give out free drink coupons in compensation. Some are even offering to give discounts on burgers that would normally be served with tomatoes. U.S. multinational chain Burger King posted a notice on its official website, Wednesday, saying its branches will add more sauce and vegetables to burgers if the restaurant runs out of tomato slices.“Due to the effects of typhoons and the abnormal climate (long rainy seaso

Sep 25, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
No tomatoes in McDonald's, Burger King burgers
Companies

Mango seeks to make new leap with local venture company

Mango's official Korean website / Screen-captured from Mango websiteBy Kim Jae-heunSpanish clothing design and manufacturing company Mango is seeking to make a new start here with a local venture firm by adopting new strategies of localization and digitalization. Mango has local retail partners around the world and they are mostly large companies. In Korea, Li&Fung and Samsung C&T import and sell the Spanish brand's apparel.However, after Samsung C&T's Fashion Group started its own fast fashion brand “8 seconds” in 2012, Mango has been operating a store here directly from its headquarters in Barcelona. In August 2018, the firm selected a local venture company Mango Retail Korea to exclusively import and sell its products here, which was unprecedented in the industry.CEO of Mango Retail Korea Kim Nak-kyun said he met with Mango Vice Chairman Daniel Lopez coincidently when he was traveling overseas. Mango's online sales in the last three years have been growing annually by 20 percent on average after Kim began managing the brand's retailing here. The biggest dif

Sep 24, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Mango seeks to make new leap with local venture company
Companies

Regulator 'very close' to granting conditional OK for Woowa-DH deal

Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairperson Joh Sung-wook speaks at the State Affairs Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keunBy Kim Jae-heunThe Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has almost finished its preliminary review of Woowa Brothers and Delivery Hero's $4 billion deal. The antitrust watchdog has commissioned the Korea Academic Society of Industrial Organization (KASIO) to study the acquisition deal between the two parties and the study is scheduled to be completed by the end of October. The KFTC then plans to examine the research in November and submit it to commissioners ahead of its meeting in December for a final decision on whether or not to approve the deal. The country's top antitrust regulator declined to comment, saying only that it will take into consideration the results of KASIO's research and its own examination in the final decision. The biggest concern for the KFTC in this review is whether the combination of the two firms will lead to a market monopoly. The watchdog will not allow Woowa Brothers a

Sep 23, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Regulator 'very close' to granting conditional OK for Woowa-DH deal
Companies

Fake reviews big issue on Naver, Coupang, Baemin

A person's left hand cradles a mobile phone while their right index finger touches its screen. / Korea Times fileBy Kim Jae-heunIn today's online shopping marketplace user reviews hold a critical influence over the decisions other customers make. As more people are shifting to online grocery shopping and food ordering platforms amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, good reviews have become more important than ever.However, several marketing agencies here have taken this opportunity to offer review writing services for small business owners that promote their products on e-commerce platforms such as Naver, Coupang and Baedal Minjok (Baemin). The problem here is that the reviews are not based on actual experiences. The prices for these fraudulent reviews differ depending on the platform. Marketing agencies charged the most for food delivery platforms such as Baemin and Yogiyo at 8,000 won per comment, and 5,000 won per comment for e-commerce platforms Naver, Coupang and WeMakePrice.Businesses, aware that positive reviews help increase product sales and improve the dealer's online reput

Sep 21, 2020By Kim Jae-heun
Fake reviews big issue on Naver, Coupang, Baemin
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