Samsung’s Company Story 2023
Currently, at the height of hi-tech and sleek design, it’s difficult to believe Samsung was once a one-man grocery store trading local produce in South Korea. The journey to becoming the world’s second-largest tech company, boasting a market capitalization of $521 billion in 2019, wasn’t entirely a walk in the park. This is the incredible Samsung company story, from its humble import-export beginnings to global tech domination.
Samsung was a grocery trading store in Daegu, South Korea founded in 1938 by a local businessman, Lee Byung-Chull. According to Samsung's founder, the Korean hanja word Samsung means "three stars". The word "three" meaning something "big, numerous and powerful", while "stars" means everlasting or eternal, like stars in the sky. The store traded noodles, dried fish, fruit and vegetables, and other local produce in and around the city. They exported the goods to China.
After the Korean War in the early 1950s, Byung-Chull’s grocery trading business also ventured into textiles, opening the largest woolen mill in Korea. Byung-Chull’s focus on industrialization helped revamp Korea's economy.
During this fraught financial period for the country, the South Korean government nurtured domestic firms with easy financing, and protected them from the competition. Samsung was among those braced by the chaebol - the support of large domestic companies - since the early 1960s, securing a string of loans and other business support.
However, Samsung electronics was eventually launched in 1969, opening electronic-focused divisions within the company. In 1971, Samsung electronics started exporting one of its first electronic goods - black and white televisions. By the mid-1970s, Samsung ventured into washing machines and fridges, before creating and mass-producing color TVs, while continuing its black and white models.
By the 1970s, Samsung launched subsidiaries including Samsung Shipbuilding, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Samsung Precision Company to be a part of these growing industries. They also started to invest in the chemical and petrochemical industries.
In 1974, Samsung Electronics acquired Hankook Semiconductor, making them the market leader in memory chips in the early 1990s. A position they retained and improved upon becoming the world’s leading manufacturer of semiconductors. At the moment, even most Apple iPhones use Samsung memory chips.
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