Byung-Chull Lee

On March 1, 1938, founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee started a business in Taegu, Korea with 30,000 won. Unlike other electronic companies Samsung origins were not involving electronics but other products.

In 1938 the Samsung's founder Byung-Chull Lee set up a trade export company in Korea, selling fish, vegetables, and fruit to China. Within a decade Samsung had flour mills and confectionary machines and became a co-operation in 1951. Humble beginnings. At first, Mr Lee's little business was primarily in trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. But in just over a decade, SAMSUNG - meaning literally "three stars" in Korean - would have its own flour mills and confectionery machines, its own manufacturing and sales operations, and ultimately become the roots of the modern global corporation that still bears the same name today.

1938

  March SAMSUNG founded in Taegu, Korea

1951

  Jan SAMSUNG Moolsan established (Known today as SAMSUNG Corporation)

1966

  May Joong-Ang Development established (Known today as SAMSUNG Everland)

1968

  Nov Koryo General Hospital opened (Renamed Kangbuk SAMSUNG Hospital in 1995)

1969

  Dec SAMSUNG-Sanyo Electronics established (Renamed SAMSUNG Electro-Mechanics in March 1975 and merged with SAMSUNG Electronics in March 1977)
  

Jan SAMSUNG Electronics Manufacturing incorporated (Renamed SAMSUNG Electronics in February 1984)

SAMSUNG's industrial era (1970 ~1979)...

Samsung is a top rated electronic & IT brand. In 2006, Business Week rated Samsung as 20th on the Top 100 global brands and the Number 2 in the electronics industry. Business Week also ranked Samsung as #20 in a ranking of the "Top 100 Most Innovative Companies" in a special report published April 24, 2006. In January 2007, BrandFinance ranked the company as the number 1 global brand in electronics.

The semiconductor division of Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip and second largest semiconductor manufacturer worldwide. In particular this has been the case for DRAM and SRAM for over a decade. From 1999 to 2002, Samsung conspired with Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Elpida Memory (Hitachi and NEC) and Micron Technology to fix the prices of DRAM chips sold to American computer makers. In 2005 Samsung agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $300 million fine, the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in the US history. Samsung, the world's largest LCD manufacturer, plans to begin running its eighth-generation manufacturing line to make 57-inch panels during the second half of the year.

In 2007, Samsung became the world's second largest mobile phone manufacturer, surpassing Motorola, just behind Nokia.

Then they developed smart phones and a phone combined mp3 player towards the end of the 20th century. To this date Samsung are dedicated to the 3G industry. Making video,camera phones at a speed to keep up with consumer demand. Samsung has made steady growth in the mobile industry and are currently second but competitor Nokia is ahead with more than 100% increase in shares.