South Korea Fines Google $32 Mln for Blocking Games on Competing Platform

A woman holds her smart phone, which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Illustration/File Photo
A woman holds her smart phone, which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Illustration/File Photo
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South Korea Fines Google $32 Mln for Blocking Games on Competing Platform

A woman holds her smart phone, which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Illustration/File Photo
A woman holds her smart phone, which displays the Google home page, in this picture illustration taken February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Illustration/File Photo

South Korea's antitrust regulator has fined Alphabet Inc's Google 42.1 billion won ($31.88 million) for blocking the release of mobile video games on a competitor's platform.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said on Tuesday that Google bolstered its market dominance, and hurt local app market One Store's revenue and value as a platform, by requiring video game makers to exclusively release their titles on Google Play in exchange for providing in-app exposure between June 2016 and April 2018, Reuters said.

Google said it will review the final decision by the KFTC to evaluate the next course of action.

"Google makes substantial investments in the success of developers, and we respectfully disagree with the KFTC's conclusions", a spokesperson said.

The KFTC said the move against the US technology giant is part of efforts by the government to ensure fair markets.

Game makers affected by Google's action include Netmarble , Nexon and NCSOFT, as well as other smaller companies, the antitrust regulator added.

In 2021, Google was fined more than 200 billion won by the KFTC for blocking customized versions of its Android operating system.



Samsung Expects a 56% Drop in Q2 Operating Profit, Far Short of Estimates

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on July 4, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on July 4, 2016. (Reuters)
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Samsung Expects a 56% Drop in Q2 Operating Profit, Far Short of Estimates

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on July 4, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on July 4, 2016. (Reuters)

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday projected a 56% drop in second-quarter operating profit from a year earlier, missing analysts' estimates by far.

Its chip business struggled with weak sales of artificial intelligence chips, dogged by delays in the supply of its latest chips to Nvidia and continued losses in its contract chip manufacturing business, analysts said.

The world's largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 4.6 trillion won for the April-June period, versus a 6.2 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate.

That would compare with 10.4 trillion won in the same period a year earlier and 6.7 trillion won in the preceding quarter.

Revenue would likely fall 0.1% to 74 trillion won from a year earlier, the filing showed.

Samsung is expected to release detailed results, including a breakdown of earnings for each of its businesses, in late July.