[Graphic News] 19% of retail goes online amid lockdowns: UN

　Online sales accounted for nearly a fifth of all retail turnover last year as lockdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic fueled a boom in e-commerce, a United Nations study showed. 　Online sales accounted for 19 percent of all retail sales in 2020, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to estimates from the UN Conference on Trade and Development based on national statistics offices in major economies. 　South Korea reported the highest figure at 25.9 percent, up from

May 21, 2021

WarnerMedia and Discovery to merge, forming streaming giant

  NEW YORK (AFP) -- US telecommunications firm AT&T announced Monday a merger between its WarnerMedia unit -- which owns CNN and HBO -- and Discovery media, creating a streaming giant that could compete with Netflix and Disney+. When the deal is finalized, AT&T will receive $43 billion and AT&T's shareholders will take stock representing 71 percent of the new company, with Discovery shareholders owning 29 percent. In a joint statement, the merger was described as creating &qu

May 17, 2021

[Graphic News] Korea accounts for 31% of global EV battery market in Q1

　Three South Korean electric vehicle battery makers accounted for 31 percent of the global market in the first quarter, but their market share has slipped since last year in the face of tougher competition from Chinese rivals, a market research firm said. 　The trio - LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation - supplied a combined 47.8 gigawatt-hour equivalents of EV batteries in the January-March period, up 127 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by SNE Research. 　

May 13, 2021

[Graphic News] Hyundai loses top rank in FCEV market to Toyota in Q1

　South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor slipped to second place in the fuel cell electric vehicle market in the first quarter as Japanese rival Toyota clinched the top rank with the release of a new model, industry data showed. 　Global FCEV sales jumped 89.2 percent on-year to hit a record of nearly 4,000 units in the January-March period, mostly driven by strong sales of Toyota‘s second-generation Mirai model, according to the data by SNE Research. 　Toyota sold about 2,000 FCEVs in t

May 11, 2021

[Graphic News] Samsung, LG among top 5 players in Europe’s smart home market in Q4

　South Korea’s two major electronics firms - Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics - were among the top five players in the European smart home market in the fourth quarter of last year, a report showed, as they push to increase connected devices amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. 　Samsung was the third-largest vendor of smart home devices, including smart TVs, smart speakers, thermostats and home security products, in Europe after shipping 4.91 million units in the Octob

April 23, 2021

Intel announces Arizona expansion as chipmaker seeks footing

CHANDLER (AP) -- Intel announced Tuesday it will build two new factories in Arizona and outsource more of its production as a new CEO looks to turnaround the struggling chipmaker. The California-based company says the Arizona expansion will cost about $20 billion and create 3,000 permanent jobs as Intel builds a foundry business to provide chips for other firms. More construction in the United States, Europe and elsewhere could be announced over the next year, CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a

March 24, 2021

[Graphic News] Samsung takes second place in connected TV devices market in Q4

　Samsung Electronics was relegated to the runner-up spot in the market for connected TV devices, which includes smart TVs, streamers and gaming consoles, in the fourth quarter of 2020, a report showed. 　Samsung, the world’s largest TV maker, shipped 11.9 million connected TV devices in the October-December period, up 2 percent from a quarter earlier, accounting for a 10.9 percent market share, according to industry researcher Strategy Analytics. 　Despite the increase in sales, Sams

March 22, 2021

Ikea France goes on trial for spying on staff

VERSAILLES, France (AFP) -- The French branch of Swedish retailing giant Ikea goes on trial Monday accused of running an elaborate system to spy on staff and job applicants using private detectives and police officers. Ikea France, as a corporate entity, will be in the dock as well as several of its former executives who risk prison terms. French investigative publications Le Canard Enchaine and Mediapart uncovered the surveillance scheme in 2012, and prosecutors got on the case after the For

March 21, 2021

'Perfect storm': phones, consoles could get pricier as chip crisis bites

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- Prices of popular gadgets such as PlayStations and iPhones could rise because of microchip shortages caused by a "perfect storm" of coronavirus-driven demand, supply chain disruptions and trade war stockpiling, experts warn. In the months after the pandemic hit, people stuck at home went on a spending spree to buy items including extra monitors, new computers and tablets -- each of which runs on all-important chips. Compounding the crisis are US-China tensi

Feb. 18, 2021

Masayoshi Son just pushed SoftBank shares past dot-com peak

For Masayoshi Son, these days are even better than the dot-com bubble. Shares in the Japanese billionaire’s SoftBank Group surged in Tokyo on Tuesday to the highest close since the company went public in 1994, rising past a long-standing record two decades ago. The shares rose 4.2 percent to finish at 10,420 yen, surpassing its previous record of 10,111.09 yen marked on Feb. 18, 2000. SoftBank’s share price increases have been backed by a surging stock market which lifted

Feb. 16, 2021

Uber posts big loss as pandemic clobbers ridesharing, despite delivery offset

Uber on Wednesday reported another hefty loss in the final three months of 2020, though the company's food delivery operations partly offset the hit taken from the decline in ridesharing during the pandemic. Thanks to that offset, the loss of $968 million was narrowed slightly from $1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to Uber. Revenue in the quarter was $3.2 billion, a 16-percent decrease from the same period a year earlier. "While 2020 certainly tested our resili

Feb. 11, 2021

[Newsmaker] Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, will step down as CEO

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore and built it into a shopping and entertainment behemoth, will step down later this year as CEO, a role he's had for nearly 30 years, to become executive chairman, the company announced Tuesday. Bezos, 57, will be replaced in the summer by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud-computing business. In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he planned to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. He

Feb. 3, 2021

[Graphic News] LG Energy Solution ranks second in EV battery market in January to November

　South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution was the second-biggest supplier of electric vehicle batteries in the first 11 months of 2020 following China’s CATL, according to a market research firm. 　LG Energy Solution, which spun off from LG Chem earlier this month, shipped 26.4 gigawatt-hour equivalents of EV batteries in the January-November period, accounting for 22.6 percent of the global market, according to the data by SNE Research. 　China’s CATL supplied 24.4 GWh eq

Jan. 20, 2021

Volkswagen triples electric car sales ahead of climate rules

Automaker Volkswagen tripled sales of battery-only cars in 2020 despite the pandemic as its new electric compact ID.3 came on the market ahead of tough new European Union limits on auto emissions. It's an early sign of what will likely be an upcoming year of increasing market share for electric cars as EU regulations drive their adoption despite the economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, and as the EU's largest economy, Germany, sees more demand. Volkswagen said Tuesday its name

Jan. 12, 2021

Where is Jack Ma, China's e-commerce pioneer?

BEIJING (AP) -- China's best-known entrepreneur, e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma, made his fortune by taking big risks. The former English teacher founded Alibaba Group in 1999, when China had few internet users. Online payments service Alipay launched five years later, before regulators said such businesses would be allowed. Both long shots grew to dominate their industries. Ma's latest gambit backfired after he called regulators too conservative in an Oct. 24 speech and urged them to be more

Jan. 6, 2021

Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot shareholders vote on merger

The marriage of carmakers PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is built on the promise of cost-savings in the capital-hungry industry, but what remains to be seen is if it will be able to preserve jobs and heritage brands in a global market still suffering from the pandemic. PSA Peugeot shareholders on Monday overwhelmingly approved the deal to create the world's fourth-largest carmaker, to be called Stellantis, with the capacity to produce 8.7 million cars a year, behind Volkswagen, Toyot

Jan. 4, 2021

Britain first to approve AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, hoping that rapid action would help it stem a surge of infections driven by a highly contagious variant of the virus. Boris Johnson's government, which has already ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to grant emergency authorization. The approval

Dec. 30, 2020

AstraZeneca COVID vaccine has 'winning formula': chief executive

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by the British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a  "winning formula" for efficacy, the company's chief executive said on Sunday. The vaccine, currently being evaluated by Britain's independent medicines  regulator, provides "100 percent protection" against severe Covid disease  requiring hospitalisation, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper. He added he believes tri

Dec. 27, 2020

[Graphic News] S. Korea has 5th largest video game market in world

　South Korea’s video game market was the fifth largest in the world in 2019, falling one position from the previous year, a report showed. 　The country's video game market reached sales of 15.6 trillion won ($14.2 billion) last year, up 9 percent from the previous year, according to an annual report by the Korea Creative Content Agency. 　The country ranked behind the United States, China, Japan and the United Kingdom in the global video market worth a total $186.5 billion last year.

Dec. 25, 2020

[Graphic News] Paris, Zurich and HK world’s most expensive cities

　Paris and Switzerland’s Zurich tied Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive cities this year as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the prices of everyday items, according to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. 　Singapore fell to fourth place as foreign workers left the country after losing their jobs. 　The research was based on the prices of 138 everyday goods and services in around 130 cities worldwide.

Nov. 24, 2020