SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS BECOMES A POWERHOUSE COMPANY IN THE 2000s

In 2001, Samsung displaced Hyundai as South Korea’s largest conglomerate and was largest company by market capitalization in South Korea, Ken Belson wrote in The New York Times: Samsung emerged from the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis “as a powerhouse, thanks to relentless cost-cutting and aggressive marketing campaigns. The company made a splash when it helped sponsor the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Quickly, Samsung was everywhere, selling semiconductors, televisions, cellphones, music players and digital cameras. [Source: Ken Belson The New York Times, July 26, 2005]

By the early 2000s, Samsung Electronics Co. was a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2003 parent company sales of US$36.4 billion and net income of US$5 billion. At that time the company employed approximately 88,000 people in 89 offices in 46 countries. There were five main business units: 1) Digital Appliance Business, 2) Digital Media Business, 3) LCD Business, 4) Semiconductor Business and 5) Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands,

In 2002, Samsung was the world’s second largest chipmaker and had $6 billion in earnings on $33 billion in sales. Samsung Electronics shipped out 14.5 percent of South Korea’s exports and was the world’s third most profitable electronic firm after General Electric and Microsoft. Sony had higher sales than Samsung but its profitability was lower

In 2003, Samsung was the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips and flat screens for televison and computers, the No. 3 maker of cell phones after Nokia of Finland and Motorola in the United States, and the No. 2 maker of DVD players. As of 2003, it market capitalization made up 18 percent of the total value of the South Korean stock market and was higher than that of Sony, its Japanese rival..

In the early 2000s, Samsung viewed Sony as its main competitor and their goal was to be the first truly global Korean brand. To gain exposure, Samsung sponsored the Olympics, World Cup and athletes like South Korean golfer Park. It name was prominently featured in films like Spiderman. A spokesman for Samsung told the New York Times: “We are into every kind of electronic product, from chips to cell phones.” Among its $26.6 billion in sales 30 percent was in telecommunications, mainly cell phones; 29 percent was in digital media such as monitors, televisions and personal computers; 27 percent was in semiconductors; 10 percent was in appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and microwave ovens; and 6 percent was in other.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group. It is the world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, and by far the largest-listed company in South Korea. Its market capitalization is more than three times larger than the closest rival — Hyundai Motor. It was founded in 1969 and is the now the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones televisions.

▪Samsung Electronics is the world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker. Its main products are smartphones, mobile devices, televisions, cameras, other consumer products. It also makes electronics parts, including lithium-ion batteries, chips, semiconductors, hard drives and other electronic products and components used by other companies, including competitors. Customers include Apple, HTC, and Sony

Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969.Headquartered in Samsung Digital City, in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul, it employs 287,439 people. In 2020, its revenues were US$200.6 billion, it operating income was US$30.5 billion, it net income was US$22.4 billion, its total assets were US$320.4 billion and its total equity was US$233.7 billion. All of these figures were higher than the previous year .

A) The leaders of Samsung Electronics: 1) Lee Jae-yong (chairman); 2) Kwon Oh-hyun (vice chairman and CEO); 3) Young Sohn (president). B) Main Owners: Government of South Korea through National Pension Service (10.3 percent); Samsung Life Insurance (8.51 percent); Samsung C&T Corporation (5.01 percent); Estate of Lee Kun-hee (4.18 percent); Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (1.49 percent); C) Main Subsidiaries: Samsung Medison; Samsung Telecommunications; SmartThings; Harman International; Viv

History of Samsung Electronics

By the late 1960s, Samsung found Lee Byung Chul chose electronics to be the focus of Samsung's manufacturing. In the late 1970s Samsung put Korean engineers to work dismantling color television sets from the United States, Europe and Japan to see how they could be copied. It took about three years for Samsung to go into production of color television sets. In 1979 Samsung started making VCR's and in 1980 microwave ovens. [Source: Samsung]

In 1969 , Samsung-Sanyo Electronics was established (renamed Samsung Electro-Mechanics in March 1975 and merged with Samsung Electronics in March 1977). The production of a black-and-white television (model: P-3202) started at Samsung-Sanyo began soon afterwards. A huge burst of growth for Samsung occurred in the burgeoning home electronics business. Samsung Electronics, already a major manufacturer in the Korean market, began to export its products for the first time during this period. [Source: Samsung]

In 1972, production of black-and-white televisions for domestic sale began. In 1974
washing machine and refrigerator production started. In 1976, the 1 millionth black-and-white TV was produced. In 1977 Samsung started to export color televisions In 1978, the 4 millionth black-and-white TV — most in the world — was produced. In 1979, the company began mass production of microwave ovens, In 1980, the 1 millionth color TV was produced. In 1982, the 10 millionth black-and-white was TV produced. In 1984, the first Samsung VCRs were exported to the U.S. In 1989, the 20 millionth color TV was produced.

In 1982, Korea Telecommunications Corp. changed its name to Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co. In 1988, Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co merged with Samsung Electronics and home appliances, telecommunications, and semiconductors were selected as core business lines. In the mid-1990s, 17 different products — from semiconductors to computer monitors, TFT-LCD screens to color picture tubes—climbed into the ranks of the top-five products for global market share in their respective areas, and 12 others achieved top market ranking in their areas.

A spokesman for Samsung told the New York Times in the early 2000s: “We are into every kind of electronic product, from chips to cell phones.” Among its $26.6 billion in sales 30 percent was in telecommunications, mainly cell phones; 29 percent was in digital media such as monitors, televisions and personal computers; 27 percent was in semiconductors; 10 percent was in appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and microwave ovens; and 6 percent was in other.

Samsung in the Late 1990s and the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis

The 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis affected nearly all Korean businesses, but Samsung was one of few companies that continued growing, thanks to its leadership in digital and network technologies and its steady concentration on electronics, finances, and related services.

Samsung was the one chaebol that emerged from the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis leaner and meaner than before, capable of going head to head with any company in the world.Samsung responded to the crisis by reducing the number of its affiliated companies to 45 (according to the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act), decreasing personnel by almost 50,000, selling 10 business units, and improving the soundness of its financial structure, lowering its 365 percent debt ratio in 1997 to 148 percent by late 1999.

In 1997, Samsung announced 2nd phase of new management. In 1998 the company served as Olympic Partner at Nagano Winter Olympics. In 1999, Samsung Aerospace (known today as Samsung Techwin), Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft formed a single business entity, Korea Aerospace Industries.

Jong Yong Yun, who has served as CEO of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. since 1997 is given a lot of credit for maneuvering Samsung through the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis and poising it take of afterwards. The soft-spoken engineer aimed to make the company lean, mean, flexible and responsive. He lead the company through the Asian economic crisis in 1997-1998 by cutting 30,000 of its 70,000 workers, shedding noncore units, demanding that individual factories be profitable on their own, and merging wireless technologies with everyday gadgets that people use. Under his leadership, the company became very good at anticipating trends and making money from them.

Samsung Electronics Posts a Profit of $10 Billion in 2004

Samsung Electronics posted an annual profit of over US$10 billion in 2004, with high profit margins at 21 percent. Samsung reported: Samsung achieved profits of over US$10 billion for the first time in its 35-year history, a remarkable feat for a manufacturing company. Last year, only 9 companies recorded profits of over $10 billion, the majority being from either the financial services or oil industries. [Source: Samsung, Jan 14, 2005]

“In the fourth quarter, Despite a drop in prices, the Semiconductor Business recorded gains in revenue from a steady increase in demand. While LCD panel prices experienced sharp declines, the drop in price increased demand and LCD Business sales grew 3 percent from the previous quarter. In the Telecommunication Network Business, sales and profits decreased due to a strategic channel inventory adjustment in mobile phones, increase marketing spend to strengthen relations with carriers and rise in R&D expenditure for 3G.

Dr. Woosik Chu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IR Team, states, “From the rising Won and high oil prices to difficulties in procuring raw material and China's economic retrenchment policy, many elements made the business environment particularly difficult in 2004. Samsung was able to achieve record sales and profits of US$10 billion with its cost competitiveness, product differentiation and ability to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace.”

“The Semiconductor Business had another great year as annual sales increased by 43 percent to reach KRW18.22 trillion. Operating income was at KRW7.48 trillion, up 107 percent from the previous year. With operating margins of 41.1 percent, the business delivered its strongest year ever. This performance is attributed to the stabilization of DRAM prices, a rising demand of NAND flash memory due to a strategic drop in prices and the increase in demand of high value-added products, such as DDR2 and mobile DRAM. In addition, the company's cost competitiveness was further improved with the mass implementation of 90-nanometer processing technology.

“The LCD Business reported an increase of 67 percent and 111 percent for annual sales and operating profits of KRW8.69 trillion and KRW1.88 trillion, respectively. The strong performance is due to the robust growth of demand for large-sized panels for LCD monitors. Although LCD panel demand fell in the third-quarter after an incredible climb in the first half of 2004, the company expects the continued drop in LCD panel prices to drive demand that will lead to a balancing of supply and demand

“The Telecommunication Network Business sold 86.53 million phones throughout 2004, a 55 percent increase from the 55.66 million units it sold in 2003. Sales grew 33 percent to KRW18.94 trillion and profits were at KRW2.81 trillion. The aggressive push of its successful Olympic marketing program and favorable sales in the US and BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) region all contributed to its best recorded performance to date and a marked improvement in market share from 10.8 percent in 2003 to 13.7 percent in 2004. The Digital Media Business and Digital Appliance Business experienced losses of KRW25.8 billion and KRW53.7 billion due to the stagnant domestic market. However, the company expects improved performances in 2005 with momentum gains in the digital TV segment and the establishment of its Kwangju manufacturing system. Revenue by Business ( in trillion won )

Samsung Electronics Reaches $100 Billion in Value in 2006

In January 2006, Samsung Electronics Co topped $100 billion in market value, one of only four Asian companies above that mark. Bloomberg reported: Shares of Samsung climbed 5.1 percent to 699,000 won, pushing the capitalisation of the company to close at a record 103 trillion won, or $103 billion. Samsung is now second in size to Vodafone Group Plc among non-US technology stocks and has overtaken the values of Finland’s Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc and Japans Sony Corp this decade. [Source: Bloomberg, Jan 5 2006]

“Chairman Lee Kun Hee, is reaping the rewards of a strategy that created the worlds largest supplier of computer memory chips, TVs and six other electronic products through investments. Samsung now aims to double sales and become the top manufacturer of 20 products globally by 2010.

“Samsung continues to operate on a scale that few in the world can match, so I can’t picture many companies trying to replicate it,” said Brad Aham, who manages the $1.4 billion SSgA Emerging Markets Fund at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. Its challenge now is to identify the areas that will allow them to grow earnings off the already high base they’ve reached.”

“Samsung shares rose 46 percent in 2005, capping the fourth annual gain in five years. Since the beginning of the decade, the stock has more than doubled, compared with a 34 percent gain in South Koreas Kospi index, which rose to a record. Morgan Stanley Capital International Incs $6.5 trillion Asia Pacific Index has dropped 3 percent in the same period.Chairman Lee, who will turn 64 on January 9, owned 2.8 million shares of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Grows at the Expense of Its Japanese Rivals

There was a lot of talk in the 2000s that Japan was on the decline in the electronics industry as evidenced by critiques of products by Japanese companies at the International Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the growing strength of South Korea electronic companies, namely Samsung, in the U.S. market place. In 2006 Intel and Samsung had a combined share of the market that was as large as Japan’s 20 largest chipmakers. In 2009 in the U.S., Samsung had an 80 percent share of LED televisions and a 75 percent share of the market for televisions that accessed the Internet. In 2010, Samsung is expected to be first put of the blocks with a 3-D television.

Hiroko Tabuchi wrote in the New York Times in May 2010, “Japan's electronics makers, like Sony and Panasonic, have been usurped on one end by rivals elsewhere in Asia, which have overtaken the Japanese by making cheaper versions of the products Japan long dominated. Samsung Electronics of South Korea now leads the global television market with an almost 25 percent share in flat-panel TVs, according to DisplaySearch. [Source: Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times, May 29, 2010]

Increasingly Japanese electronics firms are being out competed by South Korean firms. In 2010, a number of Japanese companies including Sony, Panasonic and Sharp, released 3-D televisions and other devices but some of their buzz was taken by South-Korea-based Samsung that introduced similar devices and cheaper prices. In 2009, Samsung made more in operating profit than Japan’s nine electric companies combined. Some say South Korea’s success is a product of its technological know-how combined with clever marketing and good sense of timing.

Japanese and South Korean companies are not only facing off against each other in the United States and Europe there are also battling in developing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam and in the Middle East. Jeeva Raj, director of a major retailer in Singapore, told the Yomiuri Shimbun, “South Korean firms are giving consumers better bang for their buck than their Japanese counterparts.

Japanese Weaknesses That Helped Samsung Grow

Monozukuri, the Japanese obsession with craftsmanship, has been described as an outmoded idea in electronics. A representative with one U.S. electronics maker told Japanese pop culture expert Roland Kelts, that monozukuri was a virtue of the product-oriented “analog era” but it is a liability in the digital era, “where emphasis is on network effects, and advantages flowing from connections across various platforms.” Based on the wow-factor of some Samsung products, one CES headline said the there was “passing of the torch” as “the gadget world’s balance of power shifts from Japan to Korea.”

Despite their technological prowess, neither Japan's analog high-definition broadcasting system nor its mobile phone technology are used in Europe or the United States, forcing Japanese companies to fight tough competitors in global markets. Roland Kelts wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun, “Be it Japanese pop culture, consumer electronics, flagship airlines or even national government, plug in the problems and you get the same result: a clear picture of a staggering Japan en route to irrelevance. Is it any wonder so many Japanese youth see their homeland as a hopeless enclave, plagued by has-been paradigms and unable to evolve? Why else would a dynamic culture relegate its younger resources to the margins, where they are withdrawing and shrinking away from engagement, while its neighbors race ahead on silver-streaked water skis?”

Toshiba and Samsung were in a bitter battle for control of the flash memory business. Toshiba built new sophisticated plant on Yokkaicha Japan that made the devises and was very secretive about what went on there. While Toshiba invented the chips Samsung has used bigger production volumes and cheaper prices to become the market leader. It had 50 percent of the market in 2005 while Toshiba had 22 percent.

Samsung Surpasses Sony in the Mid-2000s

Ken Belson wrote in The New York Times: "They go head-to-head with their televisions, DVD recorders and camcorders: Sony, the world's best-known electronics maker, and Samsung Electronics, the hard-charging upstart. Yet in a twist emblematic of the companies' shifting prospects, Sony has increasingly been looking to Samsung to revive its sagging fortunes. Samsung, long seen as a low-end electronics maker, is now being courted by Sony for its manufacturing prowess and innovative technology. And with good reason. For the first time, Samsung's brand is now worth more than Sony's, according to an annual Interbrand- BusinessWeek survey of the top 100 global brands released Thursday. The poll, which weighed the profits those brands were expected to generate, showed that Samsung was ranked 20th, while Sony fell to 28th. [Source: Ken Belson The New York Times, July 26, 2005]

In the mid 2000s, Samsung's market capitalization was more than twice as large as Sony's, and it earned more than 10 times as much profit in 2004. “Sony fell behind in several important markets, most notably in flat-panel televisions and computer displays. The company was still clinging to older cathode ray tube technology while consumers were flocking to LCD and plasma screen TVs, which were falling in price and were being promoted by Samsung, Sharp and others.”

In the mid 2000s, Sony was trying to cut costs in its bloated electronics division as the company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year “as sales of its consumer electronics in Japan declined and prices for most of its major products tumbled.” Samsung, by contrast, was earing billions of dollars in profits a year. Sony was “still a powerhouse in technology research and development, but Samsung has filed more patents in the United States than Sony in five of the last six years.”

Samsung-Sony Partnerships in the Mid-2000s

Ken Belson wrote in The New York Times: “Rather than shrinking from its role reversal with Samsung, Sony has embraced it by forging a series of deals that have turned the tables on a relationship that Sony used to dominate. The companies jointly invested $2 billion in a state-of-the-art factory in South Korea to produce liquid-crystal displays; the plant has been cranking out so-called seventh-generation panels since April, helping Samsung cement its position as one of the world's top LCD producers and giving Sony a lift in a market where it has lagged. [Source: Ken Belson The New York Times, July 26, 2005]

The companies are also partners in the Blu-ray group, one of the consortiums trying to establish the standard for the next generation of digital video discs and players. And in a far-reaching deal, the companies in December agreed to share 24,000 basic patents that cover a range of components and production processes. With Sony's brand and products under attack, teaming up with Samsung is a sign that the once fiercely independent company must rely more and more on others to compete effectively. "Now that we've entered the digital network age, it is not like you can do everything yourself," said Yoshihide Nakamura, an executive vice president in the intellectual property division at Sony. "We felt we had to have some kind of relationship with Samsung or we would face some serious consequences."

For Samsung, the deals are an acknowledgment of its emergence as a global player with the manufacturing muscle, financial influence and popular products to overtake its more prestigious rival in some significant areas. y teaming up with Sony, Samsung hopes to learn from Sony's powerful design and marketing expertise. "Sony is really one of the very few electronics companies whose brands are recognized as iconic," Chu Woo Sik, the head of investor relations at Samsung, said by telephone. "There's a lot to learn from Sony. But at the same token, increasingly in the digital era, everything starts on an equal footing. They also want to see why our brand is rising."

The roots of the Sony-Samsung alliances go back to the late 1990s.That's when Samsung, the largest company by market capitalization in South Korea, emerged from the Asian financial crisis as a powerhouse. At the same time, Sony's former chairman, Nobuyuki Idei, recognized that delivery of entertainment through the Internet was making it more difficult for Sony to rely solely on its proprietary technology, as it had for decades. Building partnerships with a broad array of companies was no longer going to be the exception, but the norm.

Sony toyed with finding Japanese partners, but many of them faced the same cost-cutting problems. Besides, competition with its Japanese competitors ran too deep for Sony to move beyond single- product deals with those companies. At first glance, a Japanese-South Korean alliance seemed unlikely, too. In addition to the historical enmity between the two countries, many prominent Japanese companies were fighting Korean companies in court.

But Sony and Samsung saw beyond the friction. Executives from the two companies had been meeting informally for years to discuss strategy and technology. Sony also gained a measure of comfort when Samsung started licensing Sony's Memory Stick technology in 2001 and expanded the relationship in 2003. While Sony has been pushing into China to drive down production costs, teaming up with Samsung offers another way to cut costs. It also allows Sony to tap into Samsung's deepening expertise in everything from LCDs to memory chips.

By pooling some of their patents, the companies can reduce legal costs associated with keeping track of the royalty payments flowing between them. The companies would not say how much they pay each other annually, but both said Sony received more from Samsung. Other companies have formed alliances. LG and Philips Electronics, for instance, jointly own a display business. Matsushita Electric Industrial, owner of the Panasonic brand, has alliances with Toshiba and Hitachi to build LCDs. But these partnerships are built around single products or the development of a single technology, like Blu-ray DVDs. Rarely have two companies as large as Sony and Samsung teamed up in so many ways. Richard Doherty, research director at the Envisioneering Group, said that even go-it-alone companies like Sony were seeing the need "for my enemies' enemies to become my friends."

Sony Sells LCD Venture Stake to Samsung for $940 Million

In December 2011, Reuters reported: “Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business. The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15 percent in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays. [Source: Reiji Murai and Hyunjoo Jin, Reuters, December 26, 2009]

“In terms of direction it is a positive (for Sony)," said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities in Tokyo, about the deal. "But if they are making a loss on the sale, one could ask why they didn't make this decision sooner. Their biggest problem is that they are not making a profit even though they don't have many plants," he said. "Sony may shift to Taiwanese LCD makers should they offer cheaper prices," Song Myung-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities, said in Seoul.

“Launched in 2004, Sony's panel venture with Samsung, S-LCD, was established to secure stable supplies for Sony's flat-screen TVs at a time of shortages. The venture expanded its production facilities in line with growing demand for LCD televisions. Sony invested 130 billion yen in the project and received around half of the venture's LCD output.

“Once a symbol of Japan's high-tech might, Sony has sold off TV factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico in the past few years and outsources more than half of its production to companies including Hon Hai Precision Industry, the contract electronics maker that also counts iPhone maker Apple Inc as a key customer. Sony retains four TV plants of its own -- in Japan, Brazil, China and Malaysia.

Samsung Posts Almost $10 Billion Profit for a Single Quarter in 2013

In 2012, Samsung's revenue was equal to 17 percent of South Korea's GDP, according to Bloomberg. The company was making the world’s best-selling smartphone, the Galaxy, at a time when almost everybody in the world was beginning to regard a smartphone as indispensable. , At that time Samsung held about 33 percent of the global smartphone market, while Apple accounts for about 17 percent. In the United States, Apple has 34.3 percent of the smartphone market.

Bryan Bishop wrote: For the third fiscal quarter of 2013, Samsung has announced 59.08 trillion won (approximately $55.59 billion) in revenue, along with consolidated operating profit of 10.16 trillion won (roughly $9.56 billion). That's actually more than Samsung's guidance, with both figures representing new highs for the company. The operating profit came in at 7 percent higher than in the previous quarter, and was a whopping 26 percent up from the same period last year. [Source: Bryan Bishop, October 24, 2013]

The real question, of course, is smartphone sales. Samsung CEO JK Shin recently touted that the Galaxy S4 had moved 40 million units in its first 6 months on the market, and in today's announcements the company reveals it saw an increase in smartphone shipments of around 10 percent. While that is a mild bump up from the 9 percent that had investors and analysts worried earlier this year, the figure will do little to calm the growing concern that growth in the profitable, high-end smartphone market is plateauing. Samsung's own numbers drive the point home even further: despite the uptick in sales, the company's IT & Mobile Communications division saw revenue increase by just 3 percent.

It was in fact Samsung's semiconductor business that saw the biggest growth during the quarter, with sales of memory for mobile devices and gaming consoles driving revenue up 12 percent from the previous quarter. Its display panel business was less fortunate, with lack of demand for new TVs and displays causing operating profits to drop 12 percent

In the early 2010s, Samsung is coming under growing pressure from shareholders to distribute more of a cash pile that stood at US$60 billion at the end of 2013. But the company maintains that most of this money will be required for investment in emerging areas that will drive the company’s future growth, such as green technology and medical equipment. [Source: Simon Mundy, Financial Times, May 11, 2014]

Samsung’s Profits Rose in 2020 Despite the Pandemic

According to the Verge: Samsung Electronics has reported its fourth-quarter earnings, confirming that the company made more money in 2020 than the year before despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating profit was up to 35.99 trillion won ($32.1 billion) off 236.81 trillion won ($211.5 billion) in revenue for the year, increases of 29.6 percent and 2.78 percent respectively. [Source: Sam Byford, The Verge January 28, 2021]

“Samsung says its fourth-quarter results were helped by its “company-wide efforts to ensure a stable supply of products and services globally” in the pandemic environment. Quarterly profit was up 26.4 percent year-on-year, largely driven by the display and memory businesses, though the latter was down quarter to quarter.

“Samsung’s display business had its highest ever quarterly earnings, which the company mainly attributes to high demand from major smartphone manufacturers. (Samsung doesn’t spell it out, but this was the quarter that Apple outfitted its entire new iPhone 12 lineup with OLED panels.) Samsung also reduced its losses from larger displays like TVs and monitors, and calls out a greater demand for contactless services as a contributing factor.

“Samsung expects mobile profit to increase this quarter thanks to the launch of the Galaxy S21 series, and says it plans to expand its lineup of foldable devices. The display division, meanwhile, expects OLED penetration to continue to increase throughout the smartphone market and beyond, with wider applications in laptops, tablets, and cars. The company will also pursue growth with foldable and slidable displays.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons.

Text Sources: South Korean government websites, Korea Tourism Organization, Cultural Heritage Administration, Republic of Korea, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Library of Congress, CIA World Factbook, World Bank, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, “Culture and Customs of Korea” by Donald N. Clark, Chunghee Sarah Soh in “Countries and Their Cultures”, “Columbia Encyclopedia”, Korea Times, Korea Herald, The Hankyoreh, JoongAng Daily, Radio Free Asia, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, BBC, AFP, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in July 2021