Samsung is now known for its electronics, but the company's roots are in the food industry. In 1938, founder Lee Byung-Chull started exporting Korean food products to China. The company's name, Samsung, means "three stars" in Korean and was represented in all of its logos until 1993.
After the Korean War, Samsung expanded into textiles, insurance and retail. In 1969, the company started producing electronics and called this new venture Samsung Electronics. They began with black-and-white televisions, which they quickly started exporting to other countries. Over the next decade, Samsung produced a wide range of electronics including color TVs, refrigerators, calculators, and washing machines.
Samsung entered the mobile phone market in 1988 with the release of the SH-100, the first mobile phone made in South Korea. Although it came 15 years after the world's first mobile phone, produced by Motorola, Samsung eventually overtook Motorola and became one of the world's leading smartphone producers with its Galaxy series.
Today, Samsung employs over 260,000 people in 74 countries and has become a multibillion-dollar company. Forbes listed the Samsung Group in the top 15 of its 2022 Global 2000 list, which ranks the largest companies in the world based on sales, profits, assets and market value. While Samsung's origins were in food exports, the company's innovations in electronics have made it a household name worldwide.
Questions
Which tech companies do you consider the most innovative in the world today?
If you were a billionaire, which industries or businesses would you invest in?
If you could meet any company's CEO, who would you choose?
Have you ever considered starting your own business?
Do you know anyone who owns their own company? What type of business do they have?
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