Samsung Group [1] (stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous affiliated businesses,[2] most of which operate under the Samsung brand, and is the largest chaebol (family-controlled conglomerates in South Korea). As of 2024, Samsung has the world's fifth-highest brand value.[3]
Founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul as a trading company, Samsung diversified into various sectors, including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail, over the next three decades. In the late 1960s, Samsung entered the electronics industry, followed by the construction and shipbuilding sectors in the mid-1970s—areas that would fuel its future growth. After Lee died in 1987, Samsung was divided into five business groups: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group, and JoongAng Group.
Key affiliates of Samsung include Samsung Electronics, the world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker by 2017 revenues[4][5] Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second-largest shipbuilder by 2010 revenues[6] and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T Corporation, ranked 13th and 36th among global construction companies, respectively.[7] Other significant subsidiaries are Samsung Life Insurance, the 14th-largest life insurance company globally,[8]
Etymology
According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja Samsung is three stars. The three stands for something big, numerous and powerful,[11] while stars stands for everlasting or eternal.[12][13]
History
1938–1970
In 1938, during the Japanese era, Lee Byung-chul (1910–1987), a member of a large landowning family in Ginei moved to nearby Taikyu and founded Mitsuboshi Trading Company (株式会社三星商会), or Samsung Sanghoe. Samsung started out as a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong).[14] It dealt in dried fish,[14] locally-grown groceries and noodles.[15] The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul. He started a sugar refinery in Pusan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik
Influence in South Korea
Samsung has a powerful 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".[61][62] Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports.[63] Samsung's revenue was equal to 22.4% of South Korea's $1.67 trillion GDP in 2022.[64]
"You can even say the Samsung chairman is more powerful than the President of South Korea. [South] Korean people have come to think of Samsung as invincible and above the law", said Woo Suk-hoon, host of a popular economics podcast in a Washington Post article headlined "In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung", published on 9 December 2012. Critics claimed that Samsung knocked out smaller businesses, limiting choices for South Korean consumers and sometimes colluded with fellow giants to fix prices while bullying those who investigate. Lee Jung-hee, a South Korean presidential candidate, said in a debate, "Samsung has the government in its hands. Samsung manages the legal world, the press, the academics and
Operations
Samsung comprises around 80 companies.[66] Its activities include construction, consumer electronics, financial services, shipbuilding, and medical services,[66] and two research and development stations that have allowed the chaebol to enter the industries of "high-polymer chemicals, genetic engineering tools [and biotech as a whole], aerospace, and nanotechnology."[67]
As of April 2011, the Samsung Group comprised 59 unlisted companies and 19 listed companies, all of which had their primary listing on the Korea Exchange.[68]
In FY 2009, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 220 trillion KRW ($172.5 billion). In FY 2010, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 280 trillion KRW ($258 billion), and profits of 30 trillion KRW ($27.6 billion) based upon a KRW-USD exchange rate of 1,084.5 KRW per USD, the spot rate as of 19 August 2011.
Acquisitions and attempted acquisitions
Samsung formed Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) in 2012 and Samsung NEXT in 2013 for incubation, investment, partnerships, and acquisitions.[145][146] In 2017, Samsung NEXT created a USD 150 million fund for early-stage software and services startups.[145] Samsung Catalyst Fund, SSIC's investment arm, has funded 15-20 startups per year.[147] SSIC primarily focuses on internet of things, cloud and computer data storage, smart machines, smart health, and privacy and security.[147] In 2025, Samsung Electronics
Major clients
Major clients include:
Shell plc
- Samsung Heavy Industries is sole provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities worth up to US$50 billion to Shell plc for 15 years, between 2009 and 2024.[182][183]
- Shell unveiled plans to build the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform. In October 2012[184] at Samsung Heavy Industries' shipyard on Geoje Island in South Korea work started on a "ship" that, when finished and fully loaded, weighs 600,000 tonnes, the world's biggest "ship".
Corporate image
The basic colour in the logo is blue, which Samsung has employed for years, supposedly symbolizing stability, reliability and corporate social responsibility.[188]
Audio logo
Samsung has an audio logo, which consists of the notes E♭, A♭, D♭, E♭; after the initial E♭ tone it is up a perfect fourth to A♭, down a perfect fifth to D♭, then up a major second to return to the initial E♭ tone. The audio logo was produced by Musikvergnuegen and written by Walter Werzowa.[189][190] This audio logo is discontinued as of 2015.
Font
In 2014, Samsung unveiled its Samsung Sharp Sans font.[191]
Sponsorships
Samsung Electronics spent an estimated $14 billion (U.S.) on advertising and marketing in 2013. At 5.4% of annual revenue, this is a larger proportion than any of the world's top-20 companies by sales (Apple spent 0.6% and General Motors spent 3.5%). Samsung became the world's biggest advertiser in 2012, spending $4.3 billion, compared to Apple's $1 billion. Samsung's global brand value of $39.6 billion is less than half that of Apple.[193]
In Vietnam
In March 2008, Samsung received an investment certificate and began construction of its first mobile phone manufacturing plant in Vietnam, Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) in Bac Ninh.[194][195][196] The project originally had an investment capital of 670 million USD, but it was quickly increased to 1.5 billion USD, then to 2.5 billion USD, nearly four times the original investment capital.[197][198][199][200]
Controversies
Labor abuses
Samsung was the subject of several complaints about child labor in its supply chain from 2012 to 2015.
In July 2014, Samsung cut its contract with Shinyang Electronics after it received a complaint about the company violating child labour laws.[207] Samsung says that its investigation turned up evidence of Shinyang using underage workers and that it severed relations immediately per its "zero tolerance" policy for child labor violations.
One of Samsung's Chinese supplier factories, HEG, was criticized for using underage workers by China Labor Watch (CLW) in July 2014. HEG denied the charges and has sued China Labor Watch.[208][209] CLW issued a statement in August 2014 claiming that HEG employed over ten children under the age of 16 at a factory in Huizhou, Guangdong. The group said the youngest child identified was 14 years old. Samsung said that it conducted an onsite investigation of the production line that included one-on-one interviews but found no evidence of child labor being used.
External links
References
- SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Co., Ltd. 2020 Half-year Business Report retrieved 8 September 2020^
- http://samsung.co.kr/about/affiliate.do Samsung Group^
- Global 500 2024 brandirectory.com, retrieved 2024-06-09^