McDonald's Korea took some time to reflect on the importance of food safety, especially hygiene and quality control. A total of 2,100 people including head office employees participated in the town hall. But what makes this not a traditional meeting between employees is that this all took place in the Metaverse. 

One of the daily activities that COVID-19 has changed is the so-called home-cooked meal at home. As the demand for home-cooked food increases, a field that is attracting attention is the easy-to-eat meal kit market. The South Korean market of instant meals jumped more than 145% in 2020 from four years earlier on the increased number of convenience stores and the coronavirus pandemic.

The popularity of golf and tennis has reached new all-time highs due to Generation MZ excitement. Once seen as an exclusive sport only for the uber-wealthy—more young people enjoy outdoor leisure activities following COVID 19—leading to a full-on golf and tennis products and fashion craze. The Korea Leisure Industry Research Institute stated the number of golfers in Korea exceeded 5 million last year and that the size of the golf market will exceed 6 trillion won this year. 

Samsung has begun rolling out digital car keys starting in South Korea with the all-electric Genesis GV60. The feature allows Samsung smartphone users to lock their car and start it even if they don’t have the physical keys in hand. The digital car keys use ultra-wideband technology, a wireless protocol that transmits high-frequency radio waves; enabling highly accurate spatial awareness so the car and phone can communicate without any delays or issues. 

South Korea’s homegrown app marketplace One Store aims to challenge Google and Apple, two US tech giants that enjoy a near-monopoly in the whopping 300 trillion won ($235 billion) app store market globally, with its forthcoming stock market debut here. One Store, the nation’s sole operator of an app store of the same name, is a merged entity of the nation’s four app stores that were previously operated separately by SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus and Naver. Now it is an affiliate of SK Square, SK Group’s investment unit. 

The number of South Koreans who are 19 and younger that hold shares in Samsung Electronics reached 358,257 teens in December last year, a record high, according to the Korea Securities Depository. This number accounts for 7% of all shareholders and 0.2% percent of the total shares the tech giant has issued. The shares the teenagers held at the time amounted to 1.1 trillion won ($891 million). The rise in the number of teen accounts in 2021, jumped three-fold from the previous year, is believed to be prompted by a retail rush emboldened by fiscal and monetary stimulus measures the government had rolled out to ride out the coronavirus pandemic.