History of the Samsung logo. History of Samsung

Everyone uses mobile devices, TVs, various household appliances: microwave ovens, refrigerators, washing machines. And if you ask who is the best in this sector, many will answer - Samsung.

Yes this is true. Samsung is a well-known global brand under which almost any equipment used daily in everyday life is produced. You can hear about this company in advertising. You can read about her Interesting Facts on various sites. It can be seen in any thematic ratings, where it takes far from the last place. But few people know how it all began, and even about which country is the manufacturer of Samsung.

The beginning of the story

The country of origin of Samsung is Korea, since it was here in 1938, in the city of Daegu, that the company was founded. Its founder was Byung-Chull Lee, a Korean entrepreneur whose financial fortune was only 30,000 won ($2,000 at the time).

At the time of its founding, the company was named Samsung (Korean for "three stars"), in honor of Byong's three sons. But there is other information about Samsung and the origin of its name. Which one is true is unknown.

Although Samsung is now considered the world leader in the production of various equipment and electronics, at the time of foundation, the company's employees were engaged in completely different matters, namely, the production of rice flour. Only in 1969 did the company make a breakthrough in the technical field.

Machinery production

At the very beginning, the company, together with Sanyo (a Japanese electronics manufacturer), began to produce semiconductors. Later, a shop was opened where they assembled black-and-white TVs.

Since 1973, production has gradually shifted to large-scale production household appliances. And the cooperation of two opposing companies has turned into a whole corporation called Samsung Electronics.

In the same year, Samsung Electronics moved from Daegu to Suwon (a city in South Korea), where a home appliance factory was erected in early December. A year later, Semiconductor Co. joined the corporation. (Korean company). This was the beginning of the large-scale production of refrigerators and washing machines.

Since 1979, the company began to produce video recorders. And since 1983 - PC. In the same year, the manufacturing country of Samsung is not only South Korea, but also the United States. The fact is that production moved here in order to open a plant for the manufacture of microwave ovens.

Production started in 1998 digital TVs and DVD players. And in 1999 the company created the first mobile phone.

Samsung today

Today it is difficult to say which company's factories are located around the world. The corporation has given jobs to more than half a million citizens in 60 countries around the world. And plans to expand further in the future.

Almost everything is produced under this brand: from stereos and TVs to refrigerators and washing machines. Even such specific household appliances as sandwich makers or waffle makers are mass-produced at Samsung Group factories. That is why now in almost any area of ​​life you can come across the Samsung brand, which is constantly developing, introducing innovations in order to conquer new heights of the electronic industry.

It's time for the fucking great stories. This time I will tell you the history of Samsung Corporation, how it started, how and where it went, and what it finally came to. To whom and to what does it owe its formation and how it looks now.
It all started around 1932, when young Lee Byung-chul, the son of fairly wealthy peasants and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, opened his warehouse in the small city of Daegu, selling rice flour. Yes, yes, if you want to be the biggest phone maker (like Nokia or Samsung) start a business that has nothing to do with it - make paper, sell flour, save kittens.

At that time, all of Korea was a colony of Japan, which in every possible way stifled the spirit of entrepreneurship, because of which the country was in fact a very large garden with a very poor population.
Cheap labor gave out excellent prices for goods, and by 1938 our hero was the first to carry flour to China. Things went well and the peasant began to carry not only flour, but also rice, sugar, fish and other people need to survive nonsense, taking it away from the poor Korean workers. It was then, in 1938, that the trademark Samson Trading (namely, how the name Samsung is pronounced correctly)

Samsung in translation means "three stars", which you can see on all early versions of the logo. There is a beautiful legend that the name was given in honor of his three sons, but the trouble is that in 38 he did not have them yet and he hardly even thought about it.

Things were going uphill and by the beginning of World War II, Lee was fully armed: when American troops landed on the peninsula, his factories that produced all kinds of hats were quickly converted into factories that produce beer and vodka, which good-natured and wealthy Americans were happy to buy at even rather inflated prices, creating wealth for Lee Byung.

In 1950, the Korean War began. North Korea against the south. The entrepreneur's warehouses and factories were burned or looted, and Lee himself is on the northerners' death list for aiding and bribery to the then (and first) president of South Korea. Chul, realizing that things are bad, is going to run south.

There is another legend, which gradually grows into two. One by one, he collects all the money and gives it to his driver, whom he sends south, but the driver is caught in the middle of the journey and taken prisoner. However (!) he manages to hide the money in one of the houses, which later (!) burned down, but the chest with the money, by a lucky chance (!) survived and Lee Byung later miraculously (!) finds it.
According to the second legend, Chhun accidentally (!) finds someone else's burnt house and someone else's money in a chest, which he later uses to regenerate his business.
These are the Korean legends.

After the capture and execution of the first, evil president of South Korea, the second, kind, comes to power, who begins a series of industrial and economic reforms. In particular, an attempt was made to replace the import of goods own production. To do this, the president asked the United States thousands of money for development, in fact, brazenly poking them and spending on women and booze. Our hero didn’t get booze and heifers, but in addition to money, the United States also distributed orders for the production of any product on which the newly recreated Samsung could make good money. It was during this period and under these orders that companies such as Daewoo, LG (formerly GoldStar) and Hyundai were created, rather big companies today.

By the end of the sixties, the founder of Samsung became the most influential and largest entrepreneur in the country. Realizing that the story with the president and his factories could repeat itself, he begins to travel to Japan, establish contacts with the local mythiose traders, and Sanyo becomes the first sign, uniting with which Samsung receives the Group prefix and the Samsung Electronics branch.

While the head of Samsung was traveling around Japan, there was another coup in his homeland, and again an evil president was in power! Lee Byong, without losing a moment, talks with the new president and convinces him that it is his company that is able to lead the country out of crisis, wars and bring happiness and joy in the future and throughout the planet. But for this it was necessary to make him the head of the economy, and his company to give the best and largest orders. And the president agreed.

Here it is worth making a note about the personality of the protagonist. He was a cunning, crafty man. Only his desire for profit and life saved his skin and literally begged for such privileges. You should not think that he was a kind entrepreneur who loved his employees and gained respect from the president.

Samsung Group begins to actively engage in the production of paper (the government gave Samsung the only paper mill in charge) and fertilizers (again, the only ones in the country), began to build and restore hospitals, hotels, universities, engage in insurance, and by 70 Samsung took up heavy production. The corporation, in fact, began to serve the country, continuing to increase Li's fortune.

In parallel with this, the company decides to enter new market- electronics, starting to assemble hair dryers and black-and-white TVs with the help of Sanyo. At some point, realizing that they can do all this without Sanyo, they say goodbye to the company, washing down their own components for TVs and hair dryers.

At the same time, democracy comes to the country (for real this time) and the flow of money and government orders stops, many institutions, such as hospitals and schools, go back to the state, Samsung has to tighten their belts. The entire board, which consisted of close and distant relatives of Lee, was dismissed by his own order and European and Western experts were hired in their places, who could not only preserve the current, but also increase (what was once found on the ashes , lol).

In 1983, the company begins the production of computers and components.
In 1987, the founder of the company, Lee Byung-chul, dies in Seoul at the age of 77.
By 1991, the production of mobile phones begins.

But most of all, Samsung, of course, “rose” on monitors and TVs, plants were erected in many places as quickly as possible. major countries to fully provide domestic markets. So, for example, all Samsung TVs and monitors sold in Russia are manufactured at the company's plant in the Kaluga region.

Now Samsung is not just a multi-billion dollar company, but also a leader in many industries, collecting not only well-known phones and electronics. In addition, Samsung does not hesitate to continue to engage in chemical and heavy industries, build houses, cars, aircraft, ships, as well as issue loans and insurance. Samsung is an elegantly built corporation, with branches in different industries that not only generate income, but also help drive its main directions forward.

For example, the construction department can build factories, the light industry department can sew clothes for workers at these factories, and the finance and credit department can insure life and issue loans. The automobile concern produces cars for various kinds of managers, and the plant itself produces the same monitors and televisions.

The experience that the company gained by lifting the country as it was intended was not forgotten, but, on the contrary, was applied with wisdom.

May 2nd, 2015

The image shows a warehouse in the city of Daegu, from which the history of Samsung began.

Few people probably know that Samsung began as a shop selling vegetables. The founder of the company is Lee Byong Chul. Lee's shop sold vegetables and herbs grown in nearby fields. The company was making good money, so Lee decided to move to Seoul, where he worked as a sugar refiner and later founded a textile factory. Lee tried to make the word "diversification" his slogan. Samsung was involved in many things - the insurance business, security, retail.

Now Samsung, in addition to the production of various electronics, is engaged in the production of polymers, oil refining, makes tankers, military equipment and even cars(which are called - Samsung). The company is also engaged in finance, insurance, textile production, owns a chain of hotels, resorts and amusement parks.

Let's remember how it all happened.

The ability to balance on a knife edge, instantly respond to changes and always be on the alert - these are the distinguishing qualities Samsung. Many Korean companies went under, unable to withstand all sorts of “cleansing” and persecution, and Samsung not only survived, but also became a transnational corporation.

According to the biography of the founder of Samsung Lee Byong Chul, you can shoot an action movie in the spirit of Jackie Chan. In 1938, Li Biong named his small trading company " Three stars» ( Samsung Trading Company). It is said that this was done in honor of Li's three sons.

Samsung Group logo "Three Stars" (late 1980s - 1992)

At that time, this company did not even think about any high technologies, quietly supplying rice, sugar and dried fish to China and Manchuria. It looked like a protest against dependence on Japan, and Samsung gained a reputation as a patriotic entrepreneur. During World War II, the United States landed on the Korean Peninsula and liberated South Korea from the Japanese. By this time, Li Biong had a large production plant rice vodka and beer. These products sold well to the American army and Li Biong's business went uphill. In 1950, a war broke out on the Korean Peninsula between the communist North and the pro-American South. And for this, the North Korean communists put Lee Byong-chul's name on the death list as an accomplice of the puppet regime.

If Lee hadn't smelled the fried food, reinvested all the profits, and turned all the proceeds into cash, then Samsung would have died. How did the money stuck in the wine box survive? separate plot. The car in which they were transported was confiscated, the house in which they were hidden was completely burned down, and wooden box just pissed off! And Samsung, as they say, has risen from the ashes.

The second time Lee was on the death list was under Park Chung Hee. Formally - for illegal enrichment on government supplies and economic sabotage, but in reality for having rubbed shoulders with the Japanese, trying to learn from the experience of the zaibatsu (chaebol in Korean, but in our opinion something like a powerful clan).

After a sincere conversation with General Li, not only was he not shot, but he was appointed head of Korean businessmen. Samsung has become a concern, mastering government orders and enjoying all sorts of subsidies and benefits.

In the 60s, the Li family expanded their business: they built the largest factory in Asia for fertilizer production, founded the Joong-Ang newspaper, built ships, hotels, universities and hospitals, and set up a citizen insurance system.

In 1965, South Korea re-established diplomatic relations with Japan. Lee Byong-chul reached an agreement with the Japanese leadership on technological support electronic industry that originated at that time in South Korea. As a result, in 1969, together with the Japanese company Sanyo, Samsung-Sanyo Electronics (SEC). She began to specialize in the production of semiconductors and a few years later became the property of Samsung. In 1970, cooperation with Sanyo Electric led to the merger of companies and the creation of a corporation Samsung Electronics.

In general, everything that happened before the 70s somehow weakly correlates with the image of a modern corporation, and Samsung-Sanyo Electronics, the first joint Korean-Japanese enterprise, can rightly be called its real predecessor. True, cooperation with those same zaibatsu was not the most successful - the Japanese clamped the latest technology and shared only obsolete ones, and the prices for components were driven up. This is one of the reasons Sanyo was removed from the company's name - it's just that Koreans have learned how to make semiconductors themselves.

Since August 1973, the main office of the company began to be located in Suwon (South Korea), and in November the construction of a plant for the production of household appliances was completed. At the same time, the Korean company Semiconductor Co.. joins the corporation, as a result of which the mass production of washing machines and refrigerators began.

In 1977, the company's export volumes exceeded 100 million US dollars. In 1978, the first Samsung office in the United States opens. In 1979, the first home video recorders were released. However, half of the cost of goods had to be given to the Japanese for the use of their technology and design. In addition, in other countries, Samsung products were sold under foreign brands or at very low prices.

As a result of the economic crisis that swept South Korea in the late 70s, Samsung Electronics started making losses. In response to this, Lee Kun-hee, the son of the founder of the company, decided to reform the company. He reduced the number of subsidiaries, stopped subsidizing departments, put the quality of products at the forefront. These transformations had a positive impact on the company's financial condition - revenues of Samsung Electronics grew again. At this time, the company joined Korea Telecommunications Co., which was renamed Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co.

By the end of the 70s, Samsung Electronics had become the flagship enterprise of the Lee empire, and in the late 80s, an economic crisis occurred in Korea, and the company became unprofitable.

Samsung again had every chance to cease to exist, but this did not happen, since Lee the second (Kun Hee) developed a rescue plan long before the crisis. It was planned to change everything, with the exception of wives and children. The key point in the restructuring was a shift in priorities - quality became more important than quantity. Perestroika lasted 10 years and was crowned with success. One company after another went bankrupt: Hanbo, Daewoo, Huyndai, and Samsung increased exports and established itself in the global high-tech market.

Samsung announced its first computer in 1983.

In 1983, Samsung Electronics launched its first personal computers (Model: SPC-1000). In the same year, the following were released: a 64M DRAM chip with a memory capacity of 64 MB; a player that could read regular CDs, CD-ROM, VIDEO-CD, PHOTO-CD, CD-OK. In 1984, a sales office was opened in England, a plant for the production of audio and video equipment in the USA, as well as a plant for the production microwave ovens(2.4 million pieces per year).

In 1986, Samsung Electronics received the title of " Best Company of the year» from the Korea Management Association. In the same year, the company produced the ten millionth color TV set, opened sales offices in Canada and Australia, research laboratories in California and Tokyo. From 1988 to 1989, the company opened representative offices in France, Thailand and Malaysia. By 1989, Samsung Electronics was ranked 13th in the world in semiconductor manufacturing. In autumn 1988, the corporation merged with Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co..

In the 90s, Samsung Electronics intensively expanded its activities. In order to improve the management structure, in December 1992, a unified presidential management system was introduced at Samsung Electronics. In 1991-1992, the development of the personal mobile devices, and also developed mobile phone system. In 1994, the sales volume reaches 5 billion US dollars, and in 1995 the export volume exceeded 10 billion US dollars.

1995 can be called a turning point in Samsung stories– the beginning of the transformation of the company into a high-quality brand. The symbol of this moment is a photograph in which 2,000 employees smash defective Samsung products to smithereens - 150,000 fax machines, mobile phones and other devices. Samsung Group survived the last Asian crisis in 1997 with a new president, Jong-Yong Yun. Sacrificing his tail to save lives, Yoon liquidated dozens of second-hand businesses, fired a third of the staff, breaking the practice of hiring for life, and staked on emerging digital technologies.

As you can see, while other companies were doing research and one after another released the world's first novelties - a CD, a transistor receiver, a video camera, etc., Samsung survived, struggled and developed. So it cannot be said about this company that in some distant year it came up with something innovative, and everyone fell in love with it. Hit Samsung products fall precisely on the current millennium.

It's even hard to imagine that this company once produced B/W TVs and other products at "reasonable" prices. Today, Samsung has become one of the most innovative and successful players in the consumer electronics and semiconductor market. It is the world's leading manufacturer of memory chips, flat panel displays and color televisions.

The company pioneered the development of SDRAM, the ultra-fast memory chips used in personal computers, and the special memory chip used in the Sony PlayStation 2 game console. A credit card-sized camera phone! Third generation phone that accepts programs satellite television! World's smallest multifunction printer! And what is most surprising, in the summer of 2005, the value of the Samsung brand surpassed Sony for the first time! This was calculated by one of the British research companies.

By 1998, Samsung Electronics held the largest share of the LCD monitor market and began mass production of digital televisions.

In January 1999, Forbes Global magazine awarded Samsung Electronics annual prize awarded Best Consumer Electronics Company».

In the TV market, Samsung definitely surpassed not only Sony, but also Philips, and did it back in 2003. At CeBIT in 2004, Samsung wiped everyone's nose with the introduction of the world's largest 102-inch plasma panel(more than two meters!), in the queue for which even the head of Oracle Larry Alison signed up. LCD TVs of new models have been reviewed by magazines and experts, having noted this in various nominations such as “ Best Buy and 5 points. And the LN-57F51 BD LCD TV was even named a representative new era TVs. Still, with it, even the room does not need to be darkened, since the quality of the picture does not depend on the ambient light.

It didn't take a week for Samsung to announce something outstanding. Like the first in the world mobile phone with a built-in five-megapixel camera (now this, of course, is no longer shocking) or the same.

No company has such a set of proprietary technologies as Samsung. A little boastful, but it seems to be true, since Samsung is a real manufacturing company, not a sticker label on other people's products. Suffice it to say that Samsung is the only company in the world that manufactures laptops and monitors in its own factories, without relying on OEMs.

But Samsung is not only a high-tech factory, as it may seem, but also a recognized R & D center.

Byong Chul Lee, founder of Samsung Trading Co.

Byong Chul Lee died in 1987 of lung cancer. In honor of the blessed memory of its founder, a commemorative bust made of bronze and marble was installed in one of the Samsung offices.

Commemorative bust of the founder of the company

From the day of Byong Chul Lee's death to the present (with a break in 2008-2010), Samsung's board of directors is headed by younger son Founder - Lee Gun Hee. His appointment to the post of head of the board of directors went against all Eastern traditions, according to which the eldest son inherits most of the family property.

Founder's son - Lee Gun Hee

At the end of 2012, Lee Gun Hee appointed his son Jay Lee to the post of deputy board of directors, effectively recognizing him as the heir to the Samsung empire.

Jay Lee is the heir to the Samsung empire

The post of CEO and Vice President of Samsung Electronics Co is held by Kwon Oh Hyun, who took office by decision of the company's Board of Directors on June 8, 2012.

Kwon o Hyun - general manager and vice presidentSamsung Electronics Co.

Today Samsung Electronics is a transnational corporation with offices in 47 countries and employing 70,000 people. The company occupies a leading position in the production of semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, as well as in the field of digital convergence technologies. The company consists of four main divisions: Digital Media Network Business, Device Solution Network Business, Telecommunication Network Business and Digital Appliance Network Business. In 2005, the company's sales were $56.7 billion and net income was $7.5 billion.

But look how history could turn. After all, Samsung could be the first to buy Android!

Let's remember 2005. There are no smartphones yet (at least as we know them now), operators control all content, a complete mess with operating system versions, and what works for Motorola is unlikely to run on Samsung. App developers are running from smartphones like wildfire, and those who want to do it are forced to literally write new code for each model separately, often more than 100 variants at once.

The revolution, however, is in the air. Andy Rubin starts working on an operating system that was originally intended for digital cameras but has since taken over smartphones. He started as an engineer at Carl Zeiss but then worked on operating systems for pocket computers. He had the experience and support of several other engineers. In October 2003, he launches the Android project, but a year later the startup runs out of money and begins looking for investors.

We all now know that eventually Ruby comes to Google and everyone lives happily ever after. But few people know that at first Rubin went with the newborn Android to Samsung. The entire team of eight Android engineers flew to Seoul for a meeting with what was then the largest phone maker.

Rubin had a meeting with 20 Samsung executives where he introduced Android, but instead of being enthusiastic or just asking questions, the answer was silence.

What army do you want to create this with? You only have six people. Are you stoned? - that's what they said. They made fun of me in the boardroom. This happened two weeks before Google bought us, writes Rubin.

In early 2005, Larry Page agreed to meet with Andy, and after the presentation of Android, he not only agreed to help with money - he decided that Google would buy Android. The entire mobile industry was changing before our eyes, and Page and Brin watched with concern, afraid that giants like Microsoft would seize the initiative.

March 10th, 2018

The image shows a warehouse in the city of Daegu, from which the history of Samsung began.

Few people probably know that Samsung began as a shop selling vegetables. The founder of the company is Lee Byong Chul. Lee's shop sold vegetables and herbs grown in nearby fields. The company brought in good money - so Lee decided to move to Seoul, where he started processing sugar, and later founded a textile factory. Lee tried to make the word "diversification" his slogan. Samsung was involved in many things - the insurance business, security, retail.

Now Samsung, in addition to the production of various electronics, is engaged in the production of polymers, oil refining, makes tankers, military equipment and even cars (which are called Samsung). The company is also engaged in finance, insurance, textile production, owns a chain of hotels, resorts and amusement parks.

Let's remember how it all happened.

The ability to balance on the edge of a knife, instantly respond to changes and be always on the alert - these are the distinguishing qualities Samsung. Many Korean companies went under, unable to withstand all sorts of “cleansing” and persecution, and Samsung not only survived, but also became a transnational corporation.

According to the biography of the founder of Samsung Lee Byong Chul, you can shoot an action movie in the spirit of Jackie Chan. In 1938, Li Biong named his small trading company " Three stars» ( Samsung Trading Company). It is said that this was done in honor of Li's three sons.

Samsung Group logo "Three Stars" (late 1980s - 1992)

At that time, this company did not even think about any high technologies, quietly supplying rice, sugar and dried fish to China and Manchuria. It looked like a protest against dependence on Japan, and Samsung gained a reputation as a patriotic entrepreneur. During World War II, the United States landed on the Korean Peninsula and liberated South Korea from the Japanese. By this time, Li Biong had a large production plant rice vodka and beer. These products sold well to the American army and Li Biong's business went uphill. In 1950, a war broke out on the Korean Peninsula between the communist North and the pro-American South. And for this, the North Korean communists put Lee Byong-chul's name on the death list as an accomplice of the puppet regime.

If Lee hadn't smelled the fried food, reinvested all the profits, and turned all the proceeds into cash, then Samsung would have died. How the money stuck in the wine box survived is a separate story. The car in which they were transported was confiscated, the house in which they were hidden was completely burned down, and the wooden box was only charred! And Samsung, as they say, has risen from the ashes.

The second time Lee was on the death list was under Park Chung Hee. Formally - for illegal enrichment on government supplies and economic sabotage, but in reality for having rubbed shoulders with the Japanese, trying to learn from the experience of the zaibatsu (chaebol in Korean, but in our opinion something like a powerful clan).

After a sincere conversation with General Li, not only was he not shot, but he was appointed head of Korean businessmen. Samsung has become a concern, mastering government orders and enjoying all sorts of subsidies and benefits.

In the 60s, the Li family expanded their business: they built the largest factory in Asia for fertilizer production, founded the Joong-Ang newspaper, built ships, hotels, universities and hospitals, and set up a citizen insurance system.

In 1965, South Korea re-established diplomatic relations with Japan. Lee Byong-chul reached an agreement with the Japanese leadership on technological support electronic industry that originated at that time in South Korea. As a result, in 1969, together with the Japanese company Sanyo, Samsung-Sanyo Electronics (SEC). She began to specialize in the production of semiconductors and a few years later became the property of Samsung. In 1970, cooperation with Sanyo Electric led to the merger of companies and the creation of a corporation Samsung Electronics.

In general, everything that happened before the 70s somehow poorly correlates with the image of a modern corporation, and Samsung-Sanyo Electronics, the first joint Korean-Japanese enterprise, can rightly be called its real predecessor. True, cooperation with those same zaibatsu turned out to be not the most successful - the Japanese clamped down on the latest technologies and shared only obsolete ones, and the prices for components turned up. This is one of the reasons Sanyo was removed from the company's name - it's just that the Koreans have learned how to make semiconductors themselves.

Since August 1973, the main office of the company began to be located in Suwon (South Korea), and in November the construction of a plant for the production of household appliances was completed. At the same time, the Korean company Semiconductor Co.. joins the corporation, as a result of which the mass production of washing machines and refrigerators began.

In 1977, the company's export volumes exceeded 100 million US dollars. In 1978, the first Samsung office in the United States opens. In 1979, the first home video recorders were released. However, half of the cost of goods had to be given to the Japanese for the use of their technology and design. In addition, in other countries, Samsung products were sold under foreign brands or at very low prices.

As a result of the economic crisis that swept South Korea in the late 70s, Samsung Electronics started making losses. In response to this, Lee Kun-hee, the son of the founder of the company, decided to reform the company. He reduced the number of subsidiaries, stopped subsidizing departments, put the quality of products at the forefront. These transformations had a positive impact on the company's financial condition - revenues of Samsung Electronics have grown again. At this time, the company joined Korea Telecommunications Co., which was renamed Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co.

By the end of the 70s, Samsung Electronics had become the flagship enterprise of the Lee empire, and in the late 80s, an economic crisis occurred in Korea, and the company became unprofitable.

Samsung again had every chance to cease to exist, but this did not happen, since Lee the second (Kun Hee) developed a rescue plan long before the crisis. It was planned to change everything, with the exception of wives and children. The key point in the restructuring was a shift in priorities - quality became more important than quantity. Perestroika lasted 10 years and was crowned with success. One company after another went bankrupt: Hanbo, Daewoo, Huyndai, and Samsung increased exports and established itself in the global high-tech market.

Samsung announced its first computer in 1983.

In 1983, Samsung Electronics launched its first personal computers (Model: SPC-1000). In the same year, the following were released: a 64M DRAM chip with a memory capacity of 64 MB; a player that could read conventional CDs, CD-ROM, VIDEO-CD, PHOTO-CD, CD-OK. In 1984, a sales office was opened in England, a plant for the production of audio and video equipment in the USA, as well as a plant for the production microwave ovens(2.4 million pieces per year).

In 1986, Samsung Electronics received the title of " Best company of the year» from the Korea Management Association. In the same year, the company produced the ten millionth color TV set, opened sales offices in Canada and Australia, research laboratories in California and Tokyo. From 1988 to 1989, the company opened representative offices in France, Thailand and Malaysia. By 1989, Samsung Electronics was ranked 13th in the world in semiconductor manufacturing. In autumn 1988, the corporation merged with Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co..

In the 90s, Samsung Electronics intensively expanded its activities. In order to improve the management structure, in December 1992, a unified presidential management system was introduced at Samsung Electronics. In 1991-1992, the development of the personal mobile devices, and also developed mobile phone system. In 1994, the sales volume reaches 5 billion US dollars, and in 1995 the export volume exceeded 10 billion US dollars.

1995 can be called a turning point in the history of Samsung - the beginning of the transformation of the company into a high-quality brand. The symbol of this moment is a photograph in which 2,000 employees smash defective Samsung products to smithereens - 150,000 fax machines, mobile phones and other devices. Samsung Group survived the last Asian crisis in 1997 with a new president, Jong-Yong Yun. Sacrificing his tail to save lives, Yoon liquidated dozens of second-hand businesses, fired a third of the staff, breaking the practice of hiring for life, and staked on emerging digital technologies.

As you can see, while other companies were doing research and one after another released the world's first novelties - a CD, a transistor receiver, a video camera, etc., Samsung survived, struggled and developed. So it cannot be said about this company that in some distant year it came up with something innovative, and everyone fell in love with it. Hit Samsung products fall precisely on the current millennium.

It's even hard to imagine that this company once produced B/W TVs and other products at "reasonable" prices. Today, Samsung has become one of the most innovative and successful players in the consumer electronics and semiconductor market. It is the world's leading manufacturer of memory chips, flat panel displays and color televisions.

The company pioneered the development of SDRAM, the ultra-fast memory chips used in personal computers, and the special memory chip used in the Sony PlayStation 2 game console. A credit card-sized camera phone! Third generation phone that receives satellite TV programs! World's smallest multifunction printer! And what is most surprising, in the summer of 2005, the value of the Samsung brand surpassed Sony for the first time! This was calculated by one of the British research companies.

By 1998, Samsung Electronics held the largest share of the LCD monitor market and began mass production of digital televisions.

In January 1999, Forbes Global magazine awarded Samsung Electronics annual prize awarded Best Consumer Electronics Company».

In the TV market, Samsung definitely surpassed not only Sony, but also Philips, and did it back in 2003. At CeBIT in 2004, Samsung wiped everyone's nose by presenting the world's largest 102-inch plasma panel (more than two meters!), In line for which even the head of Oracle, Larry Ellison, signed up. The LCD TVs of the new models were reviewed by magazines and experts, noting this in various categories such as "Best Buy" and "5 points". And the LN-57F51 BD LCD TV was even called the representative of a new era of TVs. Still, with it, even the room does not need to be darkened, since the quality of the picture does not depend on the ambient light.

It didn't take a week for Samsung to announce something outstanding. Like the world's first mobile phone with a built-in five-megapixel camera (now, of course, this is no longer shocking) or the same.

No company has such a set of proprietary technologies as Samsung. A little boastful, but it seems to be true, since Samsung is a real manufacturing company, not a sticker label on other people's products. Suffice it to say that Samsung is the only company in the world that manufactures laptops and monitors in its own factories, without relying on OEMs.

But Samsung is not only a high-tech factory, as it may seem, but also a recognized R & D center.

Byong Chul Lee, founder of Samsung Trading Co.

Byong Chul Lee died in 1987 of lung cancer. In honor of the blessed memory of its founder, a commemorative bust made of bronze and marble was installed in one of the Samsung offices.

Commemorative bust of the founder of the company

From the date of Byong Chul Lee's death to the present (with a break in 2008-2010), the board of directors of Samsung is headed by the founder's youngest son, Lee Gon Hee. His appointment to the post of head of the board of directors went against all Eastern traditions, according to which the eldest son inherits most of the family property.

Founder's Son - Lee Gun Hee

At the end of 2012, Lee Gun Hee appointed his son Jay Lee to the post of deputy board of directors, effectively recognizing him as the heir to the Samsung empire.

Jay Lee is the heir to the Samsung empire

The post of CEO and Vice President of Samsung Electronics Co is held by Kwon Oh Hyun, who took office by decision of the company's Board of Directors on June 8, 2012.

Kwon Oh Hyun - CEO & Vice PresidentSamsung Electronics Co.

Today Samsung Electronics is a transnational corporation with offices in 47 countries and employing 70,000 people. The company occupies a leading position in the production of semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, as well as in the field of digital convergence technologies. The company consists of four main divisions: Digital Media Network Business, Device Solution Network Business, Telecommunication Network Business and Digital Appliance Network Business. In 2005, the company had sales of $56.7 billion and net income of $7.5 billion.

But look how history could turn. After all, Samsung could be the first to buy Android!

Let's remember 2005. There are no smartphones yet (at least as we know them now), operators control all content, a complete mess with operating system versions, and what works for Motorola is unlikely to run on Samsung. App developers are running from smartphones like wildfire, and those who want to do it are forced to literally write new code for each model separately, often more than 100 variants at once.

The revolution, however, is in the air. Andy Rubin starts working on an operating system that was originally intended for digital cameras but has since taken over smartphones. He started out as an engineer at Carl Zeiss but later worked on operating systems for handheld computers. He had the experience and support of several other engineers. In October 2003, he launches the Android project, but a year later the startup runs out of money and begins looking for investors.

We all now know that eventually Ruby comes to Google and everyone lives happily ever after. But few people know that at first Rubin went with the newborn Android to Samsung. The entire team of eight Android engineers flew to Seoul for a meeting with what was then the largest phone maker.

Rubin had a meeting with 20 Samsung executives where he introduced Android, but instead of being enthusiastic or just asking questions, the answer was silence.

What army do you want to create this with? You only have six people. Are you stoned? - that's what they said. They made fun of me in the boardroom. This happened two weeks before Google bought us,” writes Rubin.

In early 2005, Larry Page agreed to meet Andy, and after the Android presentation, he not only agreed to help with money, he decided that Google would buy Android. The entire mobile industry was changing before our eyes, and Page and Brin watched with concern, afraid that giants like Microsoft would seize the initiative.

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