Samsung Company | History,Facts,Info | Researchers

Samsung Electronics Company:

The Samsung Group, sometimes known as just Samsung, is a worldwide industrial company with its headquarters in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea (Korean: [sams]). It is the biggest South Korean chaebol and consists of multiple connected enterprises, the majority of which are unified under the Samsung brand (business conglomerate). Samsung will have the eighth-highest worldwide brand value in 2020.

In 1938, Lee Byung-Chul established Samsung as a commercial business. The group expanded into industries including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail over the next three decades. Samsung joined the shipbuilding and construction sectors in the middle of the 1970s after first entering the electronics sector in the late 1960s. Samsung was divided into five corporate groups after Lee's passing in 1987: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group, and JoongAng Group.

Among the notable Samsung industrial affiliates are Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, semiconductors, and information technology, according to 2017 revenues; Samsung Heavy Industries, the second-largest shipbuilder in the world, according to 2010 revenues; and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T Corporation, the 13th, and 36th-largest construction firms in the world, respectively. Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Everland, which runs the Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South Korea, and Samsung Life Insurance, which ranks as the world's 15th-largest advertising agency based on 2012 revenues. Samsung Life Insurance is the world's 14th-largest life insurance company.

Etymology:

The meaning of the Korean hanja term Samsung () is "three stars," according to the founder of Samsung. While "stars" signifies "everlasting" or "eternal," like stars in the sky, the term "three" stands for something that is "large, many, and strong."

History:

Lee Byung-Chull established Samsung on March 1st, 1938, as a food trade business. Initially, he traded noodles and other products made in and around Taegu, Korea, sending them to China and its regions. (The word "three stars" is Korean for the corporate name, Samsung.) Following the Korean War, Lee expanded his company into the textile industry and became the biggest woolen factory in Korea. To assist his nation in recovering from the war, he placed a strong emphasis on manufacturing. During that time, his company profited from the new protectionist measures the Korean government had put in place. These measures aimed to aid the country's chaebol—large domestic conglomerates—by protecting them from rivalry and facilitating their access to credit. The corporation bought three of Korea's biggest commercial banks in the late 1950s, along with an insurance provider, a cement manufacturer, and a fertilizer manufacturer. In the 1960s, Samsung bought other insurance firms, an oil refinery, a nylon manufacturer, and a department store.

To better compete in the textile sector, the firm extended its textile manufacturing methods throughout the 1970s to include the whole production chain, from raw materials to finished goods. There was also the creation of new subsidiaries such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Shipbuilding, and Samsung Precision Company (Samsung Techwin). Additionally, the business began making investments in the chemical, petrochemical, and heavy sectors around this time, giving it a strong development path.

Influence:

Samsung has a significant impact on South Korea's politics, media, economy, and culture. It was also a crucial factor in the "Miracle on the Han River." A fifth of South Korea's total exports is produced by its affiliate enterprises. In 2013, Samsung's revenue was $1,082 billion, or 17% of South Korea's $1,082 billion GDP.

"You might even argue that the chairman of Samsung has more authority than the president of South Korea. In a Washington Post story titled "In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung," Woo Suk-hoon, presenter of a well-known economics podcast, said that South Koreans had grown to see Samsung as untouchable and beyond the law ", which appeared on December 9, 2012. Samsung was criticized for eliminating smaller firms, reducing consumer options for South Koreans, and sometimes working with other industry heavyweights to control pricing while intimidating those doing investigations. In a debate, South Korean presidential hopeful Lee Jung-hee stated: "The government is in Samsung's control. Samsung oversees the judiciary, media, academia, and bureaucracy ".

Electronics:

In 1969, Samsung made its debut in the electronics sector with a number of subsidiaries dedicated to the sector. Televisions in black and white were their initial offerings. The business started exporting home electronics goods abroad in the 1970s. At the time, Samsung was already a significant South Korean manufacturer and had a 50% share in Korea Semiconductor.

Samsung's technological divisions had a fast growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition to establishing separate semiconductor and electronics sections, an aircraft division was founded in 1978. In order to meet the increasing need for systems development among enterprises, Samsung Data Systems (now Samsung SDS) was founded in 1985. That aided Samsung's rapid rise to the top of the information technology services industry. Additionally, Samsung established two R&D centers that expanded the business's technological offerings to include electronics, semiconductors, high-polymer chemicals, tools for genetic engineering, telecommunications, aerospace, and nanotechnology.

Samsung as a global company:

After Lee Byung-death Chull in 1987, his son Lee Kun-Hee took over. Samsung was divided into five firms; the electronics division remained under the direction of Lee Kun-Hee, while Lee Byung-other Chull's sons and daughters were in charge of the other four businesses. Due to its dominance in the South Korean economy, Samsung, in the opinion of Lee Kun-Hee, had become complacent and was unprepared for international competition. To the executives of Samsung, he famously said, "Change everything except your wife and kids." Lee referred to Samsung's approach as "new management," which requires that employees notify their superiors when they make mistakes. It also emphasized product quality over quantity, elevated women to high leadership positions, and opposed bureaucratic procedures.

Samsung's continuing entry into the international electronics markets in the 1990s was motivated by Lee Kun-transformation Hee's of the company's culture. Even though the corporation was successful, those years also saw a number of corporate scandals, including bribery and various patent infringement lawsuits. (In one such instance, Lee Kun-Hee was convicted of bribing former president Roh Tae-Woo and sentenced to prison in 1996. He received a two-year jail term, which the court mitigated, and was later granted a pardon in 1997.) Nevertheless, the business kept making strides in terms of technology and product quality, and many of its technological products—from semiconductors to computer monitors and LCD screens—climbed into the top five places in terms of worldwide market share.

The Samsung Galaxy smartphone series was introduced in the 2000s, and it swiftly rose to prominence as one of the most lauded and popular smartphone lines worldwide. One of the biggest microprocessor producers in the world in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Samsung also provided the CPUs for Apple's first iPhone models. The business has dominated the worldwide television manufacturing market since 2006. The Galaxy series began to include tablet computers in 2010 with the launch of the Galaxy Tab, and smartwatches in 2013 with the launch of the Galaxy Gear. The Galaxy Fold, a foldable smartphone from Samsung, was unveiled in 2019.

Lee was charged with trust violation and tax evasion as part of a conspiracy in April 2008, and soon after that, he resigned from his position as chairman of Samsung. He was found guilty of tax evasion in July, and as a result, he was given a three-year prison term with a suspended sentence and was fined almost $80 million. In order for Lee to continue serving on the International Olympic Committee and spearhead South Korea's successful campaign for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the South Korean government pardoned him in December 2009.

Lee Kun-Hee was appointed as the leader of Samsung Electronics, the conglomerate's biggest subsidiary, by Samsung Group executives in March 2010. Later on in the year, he came back to lead the Samsung Group. He had a heart attack in 2014, nevertheless, and was unable to function until his passing in 2020. Lee kept his position, but his son Lee Jae-Yong (Jay Y. Lee) took over as the de facto boss of the Samsung Group.

In 2017 Lee Jae-Yong received a jail term for bribing Park Geun-Hye, a former president. When his sentence was suspended in 2018, he served a year before being freed. He was back in jail from January to August 2021, when he was released on parole after that suspension had been reversed. Samsung was run by two, and then three, co-chief executive officers while Lee was incarcerated. Additionally, Lee was charged in 2020 with financial offenses related to the 2015 merger of two Samsung firms. The government said that Lee's total control over Samsung after assuming the position of leadership had been solidified by manipulation of the valuations of the two companies.