Photo=Motionelements South Korea’s growing appetite for artificial intelligence and other foreign digital services is opening a new front for U.S. technology companies—and highlighting a widening dependence on overseas software that could reshape the country’s services economy. The trend accelerated in the first half of 2026. South Korea ran a $6.44 billion deficit in knowledge-service trade, the second-largest half-year shortfall on

(Photo=Naver) Naver, which operates South Korea’s leading search engine along with major shopping and payment services, has abandoned a potential investment in Baemin, the country’s largest food delivery platform, ending months of discussions over a deal valued at as much as $5.7 billion. The deal would have pushed Naver deeper into the daily spending habits of Korean consumers. Its services

(Photo=CJ ENM) Korean entertainment has spent years building a global audience through music, television and film. Now one of South Korea’s biggest media companies is trying to turn that cultural momentum into a broader distribution business across Europe. CJ ENM, a major South Korean entertainment and media company with businesses spanning television, film, music and content distribution, is expanding in

Photo=Coupang South Korea’s latest data-breach dispute is putting a potentially multibillion-dollar price tag on consumer privacy, a development that could matter to U.S. e-commerce, technology and cybersecurity companies operating in markets with increasingly aggressive data-protection rules. Coupang has rejected a proposed compensation plan that could have exposed the company to about $2.7 billion in payouts, keeping uncertainty over its ultimate

Photo=Motionelements South Korea’s obesity-drug market is moving toward a three-way battle that could put new pressure on pricing and market share. For U.S. pharmaceutical companies and investors tracking the global GLP-1 market, the potential arrival of a lower-cost Korean treatment could offer a glimpse of how local competitors may challenge established drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro. Hanmi Pharmaceutical is