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Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation, having its headquarters in Samsung Town, Seoul. It consists of numerous affiliated businesses spread around the world, with most of them united under the Samsung brand. In recent years Samsung has established itself as a significant company in the mobile / cell phone market, and will no doubt play an important role in the history of this market.
Some notable Samsung Group industrial subsidiaries are Samsung Electronics (the world's largest information technology company according to 2010 revenues), Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's second-largest shipbuilder according to 2010 revenues), and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's 35th- and 72nd-largest construction companies). Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th-largest insurance company), Samsung SDS, Samsung Everland (the oldest theme park in South Korea) and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 19th-largest advertising agency according to 2010 revenues).
The Samsung Group of companies is responsible for producing about a fifth of South Korea's total exports and its revenues are larger than many countries' GDP. For example, in 2006, if Samsung were a country, it would have been the world's 35th-largest economy. With such incredible economic power, Samsung has a very strong influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture, and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River". Today, many businesses use Samsung's international success as a role model.
Early History
The history of Samsung begins in 1938 when Lee Byung-chull (1910-1987), who came from a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county, moved to nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe. This was a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong). The company dealt in groceries produced in and around the city and produced noodles itself. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, however, he was forced to leave Seoul and started a sugar refinery in Busan. After the war, in 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu. This was the largest woolen mill there had ever been in the country, and the company took on an aspect of a major company. At this stage though, Samsung had no involvement in the technology as such.
Diversification
Gradually, Samsung diversified into several areas and Lee sought to establish the company as an industry leader in a wide range of enterprises, moving into business areas such as insurance, securities, and retail. Lee placed a great deal of importance on industrialization, and focused his economic development strategy on a handful of large domestic conglomerates, protecting them from competition and assisting them financially. He later banned several foreign companies from selling consumer electronics in South Korea in order to protect Samsung from foreign competition.
The Move to Becoming a Multinational Corporation
During the 1990s, Samsung began to rise as an international corporation. Samsung's construction branch was awarded a contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates. In 1993, Lee Kun-hee sold off ten of Samsung Group's subsidiaries, downsized the company, and merged other operations to concentrate on three industries: electronics, engineering, and chemicals.
Samsung and the electronics industry
In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered into the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices Co., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Samsung Corning Co., and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co., and made the facility in Suwon. Its first product was a black-and-white television set. In 1980, the company acquired Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin in Gumi, and started to build telecommunication devices. Its early products were switchboards. The facility was developed into telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the centre of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. Samsung has produced over 800 million mobile / cell phones to date.
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Selection of Samsung Smartphones
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In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Samsung Electronics invested heavily in research and development, which was pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. During this period the company's expansion was quite dramatic: in 1982, it built a television assembly plant in Portugal; in 1984, a plant in New York; in 1985, a plant in Tokyo; in 1987, a facility in England; and another facility in Austin, Texas, in 1996. In total, Samsung has invested about $5.6 billion in the Austin location making it by far the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investment in the United States. The new investment will bring the total Samsung investment in Austin to more than $9 billion.
In 1992, Samsung established itself as the largest producer of memory chips in the world, and, after Intel, is the world's second-largest chipmaker. In 1995, Samsung built its first liquid-crystal display screen. Ten years later, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal display panels. Sony, which had not invested in large-size TFT-LCDs, contacted Samsung to cooperate, and, in 2006, S-LCD was established as a joint venture between Samsung and Sony in order to provide a stable supply of LCD panels for both manufacturers. S-LCD was owned by Samsung (50% plus 1 share) and Sony (50% minus 1 share) and operates its factories and facilities in Tangjung, South Korea. As on 26th December 2011 it was announced that Samsung had acquired the stake of Sony in this joint venture.
Samsung Sees Profits Rise in Final Quarter of 2011
In January 2012, Samsung announced that in the final quarter of 2011 there had been a 17% rise in profits, as smartphone sales boosted earnings.
Net profit for the final three months was 4 trillion won ($3.6bn; £2.3bn), up from 3.42tn won in the same period for 2010. However, for the whole of 2011 net income was down 15% compared with 2010.
April 2012: Samsung Overtakes Nokia
It was reported by Strategy Analytics at the end of April 2012 that Samsung Electronics had overtaken Nokia to become the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones. In the first quarter of 2012, Samsung shipped 93m phones compared to almost 83m by Nokia.
Nokia had held the top spot since 1998 when it seized the crown from Motorola.
May 2012: Samsung Announces Launch of New Galaxy SIII Phone
In May 2012 Samsung announced the release of its new Galaxy SIII smartphone. Over 20 million Galaxy S2 phones have been sold since its launch in April 2011.
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Galaxy SIII
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The success of the Galaxy phone has helped Samsung to overtake Nokia to become the world's number one mobile phone maker.
July 2012: Smartphone Sales Boost Samsung Profits
In July 2012 Samsung announced that it expected its second quarter profits to jump by an impressive 79% on the back of smartphone sales. The company also forecast an operating profit of 6.7tn won ($5.9bn; £3.8bn) for the period - its highest quarterly profit since 2008.
You can find out more about Samsung and its history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung.
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