Samsung

Samsung Group is a big company from South Korea that has many different businesses all working together. It was started in 1938 by a man named Lee Byung-chul, who first made it as a simple trading company. Over the years, Samsung grew to include many areas like making food, clothes, insurance, and even building things.

Today, Samsung is best known for its electronics, especially phones and computer chips, made by its largest part, Samsung Electronics. This part of the company brings in a lot of money and is very important to Samsung.

Besides electronics, Samsung also builds big ships through Samsung Heavy Industries and works on large building projects around the world with Samsung Engineering. The company has many other parts too, like an insurance business and a marketing company, all helping to make Samsung one of the biggest and most valuable companies in the world.

Etymology

The name Samsung comes from Korean characters meaning "three stars". The number three represents something big, many, and strong, while stars stand for something that lasts forever.

History

1938–1970

In 1938, Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung as a small trading company in Ginei and moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. During the Korean War, he started a sugar refinery in Pusan. Samsung later expanded into textiles and other industries.

1970–1990

In 1980, Samsung entered telecommunications and began making mobile phones. After the founder's death in 1987, Samsung split into several groups. Samsung Electronics invested heavily in research and opened plants around the world.

1990–2000

Samsung grew into a global company, building famous structures like the Petronas Towers and Taipei 101. It became a top maker of memory chips and liquid-crystal displays.

2000–present

Samsung opened centers for technology development in many countries. It made important smartphones and faced legal battles over technology patents. In 2016, Samsung had to stop selling a phone model because of battery problems. In 2026, Samsung reached a value of over $1 trillion due to strong demand for chips used in artificial intelligence.

Influence in South Korea

Samsung plays a big role in South Korea’s economy, politics, media, and culture. It helped the country grow quickly, known as the "Miracle on the Han River." Samsung companies make about a fifth of all the things South Korea sells to other countries. In 2022, Samsung’s money was about 22.4% of South Korea’s total money from all its work.

Some people say Samsung is very powerful, even more than the country’s leader. Critics say Samsung sometimes hurt smaller businesses, limited choices for shoppers, and worked with other big companies to set prices. A presidential candidate once said Samsung controls many parts of the country, including the government, news, schools, and offices.

Operations

Samsung includes about 80 companies. These companies work in many areas such as building, making electronics for homes, handling money, building ships, and helping with health care. They also have special labs for creating new ideas in chemicals, tools for changing genes, space travel, and tiny technology.

As of 2024, Samsung was ranked first in the world for designing new products, with many ideas shared worldwide. The company has grown to become one of the most valuable brands globally.

Acquisitions and attempted acquisitions

Samsung created special groups in 2012 and 2013 to help new businesses grow, work together, and buy other companies. In 2017, they set aside a lot of money to support small technology companies just starting out. These groups focus on areas like connecting devices to the internet, storing information online, and keeping data safe. In 2025, Samsung started a new part of their business to help other companies grow through buying them, though they had some limits on how much they could spend from money saved outside their home country.

Major clients

Samsung has many important customers around the world. One of these customers is Shell plc. Samsung Heavy Industries helps Shell with big projects involving special gas storage for many years.

Another important customer is the government of the United Arab Emirates. In 2009, Samsung joined with other companies to help build big power plants there.

Samsung also works with the government of Ontario, a province in Canada. Together, they are creating large projects to make clean energy from wind and the sun.

Corporate image

Samsung has used several logos over the years. The first logo appeared in 1938, and the current logo has been in use since 1993. The company's logos often feature the color blue, which represents stability, reliability, and a sense of responsibility toward society.

Samsung also has an audio logo made up of specific musical notes. This audio logo was created by Musikvergnuegen and written by Walter Werzowa but is no longer used since 2015. In 2014, Samsung introduced a new font called Samsung Sharp Sans, followed by SamsungOne in 2016. SamsungOne was designed to provide a consistent look across all Samsung products, from small phones to large TVs, and supports many languages.

Sponsorships

For further information on Samsung's sports sponsorships, see Samsung Sports.

Samsung Electronics spent a lot of money on advertising and marketing in 2013—about $14 billion. This was a bigger part of their money than most of the world’s biggest companies. For example, Apple spent much less, and so did General Motors. Samsung became the biggest spender on ads in the world in 2012, spending more than twice what Apple spent that year. Even so, Samsung’s brand value at that time was smaller than Apple’s.

In Vietnam

In March 2008, Samsung started building its first mobile phone factory in Vietnam located in Bac Ninh. The initial investment was 670 million USD, but it grew to 2.5 billion USD over time.

From 2018 to 2022, Samsung helped Vietnam earn over 306 billion USD from exports. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, Samsung contributed 65 billion USD to Vietnam's exports. This helped Vietnam reach a total export value of over 732 billion USD. Samsung also helped many Vietnamese companies grow and join the world's electronics industry. The number of Vietnamese companies working with Samsung increased from 25 in 2014 to 257 by the end of 2022.

Controversies

Samsung has faced several serious concerns over the years. From 2012 to 2015, there were complaints about underage workers in some of Samsung’s factories. In 2014, Samsung ended a contract with one supplier after finding evidence of underage workers being used. Another factory was also accused of using young workers, but Samsung said its own checks found no proof.

In 2017, a leader of Samsung was arrested for giving money to a friend of the president to get help with business matters. He was found guilty and spent time in prison but was later released early.

In 2011, Samsung and other companies were fined for agreeing to set high prices on computer memory chips. This affected many people who bought computers and other devices during that time. In 2022, Samsung was also fined in Australia for saying some phones could survive being underwater when they actually had problems after water exposure.

Recently, in 2024, reports say a harmful software was found on some Samsung phones in certain countries. This software could take photos, hear sounds, and listen to calls without the user knowing.