Luxury goods platform MUST'IT raises over $10 mn from VC firms

Luxury goods platform MUST'IT raises over $10 mn from VC firms

South Korea-based luxury goods platform MUST'IT has secured 13 billion won ($11.7 million) in a bridge round from venture capital firms Kakao Invest...

K-pop content platforms team up to take lead in community market

K-pop content platforms team up to take lead in community market

Platform operators targeting global K-pop fans are mired in fierce competition as companies team up to vie for the lead in the fan community platfor...

BTS smooths Butter at Billboard Music Awards; scoops up 4 awards

BTS smooths Butter at Billboard Music Awards; scoops up 4 awards

BTS is unstoppable. The K-pop boy band continues to set fresh records -- becoming the first Korean band to scoop up four awards at the 2021 Billboar...

Internet-only K Bank to raise $1.05 bn in rights offering

Internet-only K Bank to raise $1.05 bn in rights offering

South Korea’s first internet-only bank, K Bank, will be raising 1.2 trillion won ($1.05 billion) from existing and new investors for business ...

Fashion platform Ably looks to raise over $20 mn

Fashion platform Ably looks to raise over $20 mn

South Korea-based Ably Corporation, the operator of fashion platform Ably, is seeking to raise around 40 billion won ($35.3 million), attracting a p...

ASML joins K-Semiconductor Belt with $210 mn investment by 2025

ASML joins K-Semiconductor Belt with $210 mn investment by 2025

The Netherlands-based ASML Holding N.V., the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor equipment, will be joining the South Korean government-...

SoftBank Ventures invests in fashion app targeting middle-aged women

SoftBank Ventures invests in fashion app targeting middle-aged women

South Korea-based Queenit, a fashion mobile platform targeting middle-aged women, has secured around 5.5 billion won ($5 million) from a pool of hig...

Heated shopping platform M&As shake up fashion industry

Heated shopping platform M&As shake up fashion industry

South Korea's fashion industry is all shook up following the No. 1 online fashion platform Musinsa's decision to acquire 29CM, the country’s s...

K-beauty boom makes S.Korea the fourth-largest cosmetics exporter

K-beauty boom makes S.Korea the fourth-largest cosmetics exporter

Cosmetics industry sees continued export growth for two straight decades K-beauty has emerged as a global trend, thanks to the development of innov...

Fashion platforms for MZers attract investors; valuations surge

Fashion platforms for MZers attract investors; valuations surge

Fashion e-commerce platforms that have become mainstream shopping venues for millennials and Generation Z, or MZers, are seeing their valuations sur...

Entertainment shares to soar in Q2 following BTS, Blackpink comeback

Entertainment shares to soar in Q2 following BTS, Blackpink comeback

South Korean entertainment labels are expected to see their earnings momentum back in full swing in the second quarter as popular K-pop groups such ...

Korean content shares soar as platforms eye overseas expansion

Korean content shares soar as platforms eye overseas expansion

Shares of Korean content providers are flying high as platform operators such as Kakao Entertainment Corp. are looking to expand overseas to bask in...

Kakao to buy fashion app, pushing aside eBay Korea

Kakao to buy fashion app, pushing aside eBay Korea

Kakao Corp., South Korea's top mobile messaging app operator, is set to acquire a majority stake in Zigzag, a domestic online fashion platform targe...

Shinsegae buys Korean online fashion mall from IMM PE

Shinsegae buys Korean online fashion mall from IMM PE

Shinsegae Group has acquired South Korea's leading online fashion platform from IMM Private Equity, in a transaction estimated at between 250 billio...

Online fashion platform Musinsa raises $115 mn from VC firms

Online fashion platform Musinsa raises $115 mn from VC firms

South Korea’s top online fashion retailer Musinsa has raised another 130 billion won ($115 million) from Sequoia Capital and IMM Investment, g...

Growing fandom of BTS, other K-pop idols revives album market

Growing fandom of BTS, other K-pop idols revives album market

In the South Korean music industry, the emergence of Soribada, the country’s first peer-to-peer file-sharing service, in 2000 heralded the beg...

Spotify, Kakao settle licensing dispute; K-pop returns to platform

Spotify, Kakao settle licensing dispute; K-pop returns to platform

Spotify Technology S.A., the world's largest music streaming service, has reached a licensing agreement with Kakao Entertainment Corp., to make musi...

Fresh attempts to produce K-pop boy bands abroad raise eyebrows

Fresh attempts to produce K-pop boy bands abroad raise eyebrows

Last month, South Korea-based Big Hit Entertainment Co. announced plans to team up with Universal Music Group to debut a K-pop boy band in the US. T...

Amorepacific, Shopee ink partnership for Southeast Asian market

Amorepacific, Shopee ink partnership for Southeast Asian market

Amorepacific Corp., the South Korean beauty giant, has signed a partnership agreement with Shopee, a Singaporean e-commerce platform, to expand it...

Hyosung TNC: Shifting from yarn maker to eco-fashion trendsetter

Hyosung TNC: Shifting from yarn maker to eco-fashion trendsetter

Hyosung TNC Corp., known for decades as a nylon and fiber yarn maker, has launched a clothing brand unveiling garments made of recycled polyester ...

Big Hit, Naver to join with Universal Music to take K-pop platform global

Big Hit, Naver to join with Universal Music to take K-pop platform global

Big Hit Entertainment Co., the label behind K-pop sensation BTS, and portal giant Naver Corp. are set to team up with Universal Music Group, the wor...

K-pop labels' revenue model shift to usher in new valuations

K-pop labels' revenue model shift to usher in new valuations

South Korean entertainment companies are expanding their scope beyond the music scene and shifting to platform services, ushering in new valuations ...

YouTube enters K-pop streaming scene; competition heats up

YouTube enters K-pop streaming scene; competition heats up

Google Inc., the operator of the world’s largest streaming platform YouTube, has entered the growing local online concert scene, heralding fie...

Naver, Big Hit, YG join forces to conquer K-pop fan community market

Naver, Big Hit, YG join forces to conquer K-pop fan community market

The K-pop fan community scene is set to heat up even further as South Korea platform giant Naver Corp. joins forces with BTS label Big Hit Entertain...

S.Korea's online fashion platform eyes global expansion

S.Korea's online fashion platform eyes global expansion

Online fashion platform Musinsa Co., a familiar name among Gen Zers and millennials in South Korea, is ready to go global. This month, the Korean co...

K-content shares rise as OTTs bask in success of dramatized webtoons

K-content shares rise as OTTs bask in success of dramatized webtoons

Korean content providers' shares are emerging as some of the best to buy as competition heats up among global over-the-top (OTT) services such as Ne...

NCSoft’s UNIVERSE fuels competition in K-pop entertainment platforms

NCSoft’s UNIVERSE fuels competition in K-pop entertainment platforms

South Korean game publisher NCSoft Corp. is fueling competition in the online entertainment platform market with the planned launch of its own app, ...

K-startup products sweep CES 2021 innovation awards honors

K-startup products sweep CES 2021 innovation awards honors

A number of products and technologies of Korean startups have received Innovation Awards honors at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, the wor...

BTS sweeps Spotify's most-streamed K-pop list in 2020

BTS sweeps Spotify's most-streamed K-pop list in 2020

South Korean artists were clearly on the rise last year, with the top 10 most-streamed Korean artists pulling in over a combined 10.6 billion stream...

Masks as fashion statement through art collaboration

Masks as fashion statement through art collaboration

Face masks have become essential in the COVID-19 era to prevent the spread of the virus. But aside from protecting users against the pandemic, masks...

Google Maps, Blackpink fans’ must-have item for Deadline World Tour South Korea’s Lee completes cabinet lineup with IT executive, lawmaker Hyundai Glovis charts new waters with world’s first AI-driven self-sailing car carrier fleet Korea’s game studios rebrand as AI tech firms, move into fashion, robotics, media Return of the K-pop queens: Blackpink, Twice power up YG, JYP