History

Samsung's History

From its inception as a small export business in Taegu, Korea, Samsung has grown to become one of the world's leading electronics companies, specialising in digital appliances and media, semiconductors, memory, and system integration. Today Samsung's innovative and top quality products and processes are world recognised. This timeline captures the major milestones in Samsung's history, showing how the company expanded its product lines and reach, grew its revenue and market share, and has followed its mission of making life better for consumers around the world.

1938-1969 Samsung's Beginnings

On March 1, 1938, founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee started a business in Taegu, Korea, with 30,000 won.

At the start, his business focused primarily on trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. In little more than a decade, Samsung—which means "three stars" in Korean—would have its own flour mills and confectionery machines, its own manufacturing and sales operations, and ultimately evolve to become the modern global corporation that still bears the same name today.

1938-1969 Samsung's Beginnings

1970	Black-and-white TV (model: P-3202) production started by Samsung-Sanyo
1969	Samsung-Sanyo Electronics established (renamed Samsung Electro-Mechanics in March 1975 and merged with Samsung Electronics in March 1977)
1966	Joong-Ang Development established (known today as Samsung Everland)
1963	DongBang Life Insurance acquired (renamed Samsung Life Insurance in July 1989)
1958	Ankuk Fire & Marine Insurance acquired (renamed Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in October 1993)
1954	Cheil Industries Inc. founded
1951	Samsung Moolsan established (now Samsung Corporation)
1938	Samsung founded in Taegu, Korea