This article is about the conglomerate. For the electronics subsidiary, see Samsung Electronics.
For
other uses, see Samsung (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Samsun.
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Samsung Group
Samsung Town, the company's headquarters in Seoul
Native name 삼성그룹
Company type Private
Industry Conglomerate
Founded 1 March
1938 (87 years
ago) in Taikyu, Ko
rea, Empire of
Japan
Founder Lee Byung-chul
Headquarters Samsung Town,
Seoul
South Korea
Area served Worldwide
Key people Lee Jae-
yong (chairman)
Subsidiaries Cheil
Worldwi
de
Samsung
Asset
Manage
ment
Samsung
Biologics
Samsung
C&T
Corporati
on
Samsung
Electro-
Mechani
cs
Samsung
Electroni
cs
Samsung
Engineeri
ng
Samsung
Fire &
Marine
Insuranc
e
Samsung
Heavy
Industrie
s
Samsung
Life
Insuranc
e
Samsung
SDI
Samsung
SDS
Samsung
Securitie
s
Korean name
Hangul 삼성
Hanja 三星
RR Samseong
MR Samsŏng
Website samsung.com
Economy of South Korea
History
Five-Year Plans
Saemaul Undong
Heavy-Chemical Industry Drive
Miracle on the Han River
1997 Asian financial crisis
Business culture
Chaebol
Trade policy
Industries
Currency
Communications
Tourism
Transportation
Financial services
Energy
Regional
Regions by GDP per capita
Seoul
Related topics
Science and technology
Cities
v
t
e
Samsung Group[1] (Korean: 삼성; pronounced [samsʌŋ]; 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 (business conglomerate) 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] Samsung Everland, operator of Everland Resort (South Korea's
oldest theme park),[9] and Cheil Worldwide, the world's 15th-largest advertising agency by 2012
revenues.[10][11]
Etymology
According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja Samsung (三星) is three stars.
The three stands for something big, numerous and powerful,[12] while stars stands
for everlasting or eternal.[13][14]
History
1938–1970
The headquarters of Sanghoes in Daegu in the late 1930s
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 (Kabushiki gaisha Mitsuboshi Shōkai)), or Samsung Sanghoe (주식회사 삼성상회). Samsung started out as
a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong). [15] It dealt in
dried fish,[15] locally-grown groceries and noodles.[16] 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, a textiles company,
and built the first plant in Chimsan-dong, Taegu. It was the largest woollen mill in the country at the
time of construction.[17]
Samsung diversified into various areas as Lee aimed to establish the company as a leader across
multiple industries. The business expanded into sectors such as insurance, securities, and retail.
In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung group's founder, jointly invested in a new company called
Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung's founder Lee
Byung-chul. The trading firm grew to become the now Samsung C&T Corporation. After a few years,
Cho and Lee separated due to differences in management style. Cho wanted a 30 equity share.
Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire and other
businesses.[18][19]
In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-
related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung
Corning and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications, and opened the facility in Suwon. Its
first product was a black-and-white television set.[20] Byung-chul was also the owner of the Tongyang
Broadcasting Company, a private radio and television company that existed from 1964 to 1980, shut
down after the Korean government reviewed the number of media outlets allowed. [21] TBC allowed
an early success thanks to its connections to Samsung, boosting the sale of its television sets. [22]
1970–1990
The SPC-1000, introduced in 1982, was Samsung's first
personal computer (sold in the South Korean market only) and used an audio cassette tape to load
and save data – the floppy drive was optional.[23]
In 1980, Samsung acquired the Kumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered telecommunications
hardware. Its early products were switchboards. The facility was developed into the telephone and
fax manufacturing systems and became the center of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. They
have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date.[24] The company grouped them together
under Samsung Electronics in the 1980s.
After Lee, the founder's death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into five business groups –
Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group and the JoongAng Group.[25] Shinsegae
(discount store, department store) was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s
from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment/logistics), Hansol
Group (Paper/Telecom), and the JoongAng Group (Media). Today these separated groups are
independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group. [26] One Hansol Group
representative said, "Only people ignorant of the laws governing the business world could believe
something so absurd", adding, "When Hansol separated from the Samsung Group in 1991, it severed
all payment guarantees and share-holding ties with Samsung affiliates." One Hansol Group source
asserted, "Hansol, Shinsegae, and CJ have been under independent management since their
respective separations from the Samsung Group". One Shinsegae department store executive
director said, "Shinsegae has no payment guarantees associated with the Samsung Group". [26]
In the 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest heavily in research and development, investments
that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. 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. As of 2012, Samsung has
invested more than US$13 billion in the Austin facility, which operates under the name Samsung
Austin Semiconductor. This makes the Austin location the largest foreign investment in Texas and
one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States.[27][28]
