We will briefly present the history of Samsung and you will see how a company that sold fish and noodles has become one of the most important and innovative companies in the world. So, let's get to know its history and see how Samsung got to where it is today.
The famous Samsung company was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-Chull as a trading company, based in Taegu, Korea. But who would have thought that Samsung started by selling fish, vegetables, and even noodles, and the small grocery store had only 40 employees. In 1947, after the company grew, he moved to Seoul but left for Busan after the outbreak of the Korean War. There, Lee opened a sugar refinery, and in 1954 he founded a clothing company, where his factory had the largest weaving mill in the country. Thus, after almost 30 years since its establishment, Samsung has developed a lot in many fields, and from textile processing, insurance, securities, and retail, the company has come to enter the electronics industry and the construction industry between the years 1960 and 1970. Therefore, it seems that the diversification of the company's activity was the main growth strategy, forming several divisions in the electronic field Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanic, Samsung Corning, or Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications. Thus, in 1970, Samsung began to export appliances such as washing machines, microwaves, refrigerators and also produced the first black and white TVs from Samsung. In 1978, Samsung managed to produce 5 million TVs. Over the next decade, the company began to expand into the technology business, producing black-and-white transistor TVs, color TVs, computers, air conditioners, video cassette recorders, and tape recorders. In the early 1980s, Samsung bought Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered the telecommunications hardware industry, producing telephone boards, telephone, and fax systems, and later manufacturing mobile phones. Also during that period, the company expanded to Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Tokyo, and New York.
In 1990 they also entered the field of construction, building three of the tallest buildings in the world, One of the Petronas towers in Malaysia, the 101 Taipei tower, and the famous construction in the United Arab Emirates, Burj Khalifa. The early 2000s came with new technologies and innovations in the field of electronics from Samsung. Thus, the company recorded sales of over 100 million units for color TVs, Also during this period, Samsung acquired various companies that contributed to the development of technologies for electronic devices, in 2005 becoming the market leader in mobile phones in the U.S. In 2011, Samsung Electronics sold its Hard drive business to Seagate Technology for $1.4 billion. In 2016, Samsung Electronics bought cloud computing company Joyent and automotive equipment maker Harman International Industries. In 2018, Samsung launched the largest smartphone factory in the world, located in Noida, India. It launched the QLED 8K TV range and The Wall, the world's first MicroLED modular TV, and delivered the first commercial 5G equipment in the US and Korea. In 2019, Samsung celebrated 50 years since its inception, offered the world's first 8K HDR10 + content, launched their first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, and unveiled the world's first 75-inch MicroLED. Samsung currently has approximately 290,000 employees and is positioned as a world leader in TV sales, with a market share of over 23% in 2020, and in terms of innovation, Samsung reserves 5th place in the top of the most innovative companies in the world.
In 1987, founder Lee Byung-Chul passed away, and his son Lee Kun-hee took control of the company, later merging Samsung Electronics with Samsung Semiconductor, and the main line of business was home appliances, telecommunications, and semiconductors. In 1988, the first Samsung phone, the SH100, was launched. Due to the continuous development that Samsung has had, the company has become very popular among high-tech products since the '90s. Samsung was a world leader in chip production, began producing the first digital TVs, and entered the automotive market, forming Samsung Motors, and in 1998 the first Samsung car was launched. In 1992, Samsung distinguished itself by designing the world's first 64 MB DRAM, producing more than 10 million industrial robots, and designing its mobile phone system, Samsung also entered the LCD technology industry at the time, and until 2005 was the world's largest manufacturer of LCD panels.
