60 Fun Facts About Samsung

What does the name Samsung mean in Korean?

The founder said 'three' stood for something big and powerful and 'stars' for everlasting.

In what year was Samsung founded?

It began as a small trading company under Japanese rule.

Who founded Samsung?

He was 28 and from a large landowning family; he had studied at Waseda University in Tokyo.

What did the original Samsung trading company sell?

It had about forty employees in what was then called Taikyu, now Daegu.

Samsung is the largest of South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, known by what Korean word?

Its revenue equalled 22.4% of South Korea's GDP in 2022.

Samsung's revenue in 2022 was equal to roughly what share of South Korea's GDP?

The country's GDP that year was about $1.67 trillion.

What was the first product of Samsung's electronics business?

By 1981 Samsung Electric had made more than 10 million black-and-white sets.

Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in which city?

Its Digital City campus is in the Yeongtong district.

Which industry did Samsung enter in 1974 by buying a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy?

Korea Semiconductor was building one of the country's first chip plants.

The founder's 1983 'Tokyo declaration' committed Samsung to becoming a maker of what?

Samsung has been the world's largest memory chip maker since 1993.

Since which year has Samsung Electronics been the world's largest memory chip manufacturer?

In 2017-18 it briefly overtook Intel as the largest semiconductor company of all.

Which long-time leader did Samsung briefly dethrone as the largest semiconductor company in 2017-18?

Samsung remains the world's biggest maker of memory chips.

After the founder died in 1987, Samsung was split into five groups. Which of these was one of them?

The others were Shinsegae, Hansol and JoongAng, alongside Samsung itself.

In 1993, Lee Kun-hee told executives to change what, apart from their wives and kids?

The 'Frankfurt Declaration' demanded quality over quantity even at the cost of sales.

In which German city did Lee Kun-hee gather his executives in 1993 for his famous declaration on quality?

He believed Samsung was churning out large quantities of low-quality goods.

Which American hip-hop clothing brand did Samsung's textile arm invest in in 1995 after its founder ran an ad for funds?

The ad appeared in The New York Times.

Which company overtook Motorola in 1995 to lead South Korea's mobile phone market?

In the early 1990s Motorola had held over 60 percent of the Korean market against Samsung's 10.

Which company, top mobile phone maker since 1998, did Samsung overtake in early 2012?

Samsung's rise was powered by the Galaxy line launched in 2009.

Samsung has been the world's largest television maker since which year?

Its Smart TVs run its own Linux-based Tizen operating system.

When was the original Samsung Galaxy S smartphone released?

The Galaxy brand itself began in 2009 with the Android-based i7500.

Which numbered model in the S series, announced in March 2013, sold more than 80 million units?

It became one of the best-selling phones of the line.

Samsung announced the original Galaxy Note, pioneer of the 'phablet', at which trade fair in 2011?

Its 5.3-inch screen was thought absurdly large at the time.

What is the stylus that shipped with every Galaxy Note called?

It uses a pressure-sensitive Wacom digitiser.

Why was the Galaxy Note 7 recalled worldwide in 2016 and then discontinued?

Even replacement units burned, and the FAA banned it from all flights.

What did Samsung release in July 2017 as a refurbished version of the recalled phablet?

Software updates had earlier crippled the remaining originals to stop them being used.

How much did a jury award Apple in August 2012 in its patent case against Samsung, before appeals cut it?

The sum was later cut on appeal, and the two companies settled in 2018.

Why was Tim Cook originally reluctant to sue Samsung?

Samsung's component sales to Apple were thought to be worth around $8 billion in 2012.

Which 2015 phone introduced Samsung's curved-screen concept?

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge marked a major redesign.

What delayed the launch of the Galaxy Fold in April 2019?

Samsung recalled the review units and finally released the phone in September.

Samsung's voice assistant, launched with the Galaxy S8 in 2017, is called what?

It replaced the earlier S Voice.

Which crowdfunded startup did Samsung buy for about $300 million in 2015 to build Samsung Pay?

Its magnetic secure transmission tech let phones work at old swipe terminals.

Samsung's Linux-based operating system used on its smart TVs and early Gear watches is called what?

The company folded its earlier Bada OS into it.

Which audio and car-tech company did Samsung buy for eight billion dollars in 2016?

The deal was Samsung's big step into connected-car technology.

In which Texas city did Samsung announce a seventeen-billion-dollar chip plant in 2021?

It came amid the global semiconductor shortage.

Which skyscraper, the world's tallest, was built by Samsung's construction arm?

Samsung C&T also built Taipei 101 and one of the Petronas Towers.

Where is the main shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries, one of the world's largest shipbuilders?

It builds LNG carriers, drill ships and floating production units.

Samsung Motors, founded in 1994 with Nissan's help, was sold at a loss in 2000 to which carmaker?

The company dropped the Samsung name entirely in 2024 to become Renault Korea.

The Samsung Lions baseball team, founded in 1982, is based in which city?

They were the first KBO team to win four straight Korean Series, from 2011 to 2014.

How many consecutive Korean Series titles did the Samsung Lions win from 2011, a KBO first?

They also topped the regular season five years running from 2011 to 2015.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings won which continental competition in 2000-01 and 2001-02?

They have four K League titles, the last in 2008, and now play in K League 2.

Everland, South Korea's largest theme park, opened in 1976 under what name?

It got the country's first wooden roller coaster, T Express, in 2008.

What is Caribbean Bay, part of the Everland resort?

The resort also has a zoo with giant pandas.

Cheil Worldwide, established in 1973, is Samsung's arm in which industry?

By 2022 revenue it was the world's tenth-largest ad agency.

Samsung Biologics, a contract drug manufacturer, is headquartered in which planned city near Incheon?

Founded in 2011, it had built four plants with 605,000 litres of capacity by 2023.

Lee Kun-hee, chairman for most of 1987 to 2020, was pardoned in 2009 so he could keep which position?

He had been convicted of tax evasion in 2008; South Korea went on to host the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

What incapacitated Lee Kun-hee in 2014, leaving his son as Samsung's de facto leader?

He died in 2020 as South Korea's richest person, worth an estimated $21 billion.

Roughly how many artworks did Lee Kun-hee's heirs announce would go to public institutions?

The multibillion-dollar collection was dispersed across South Korean museums.

Lee Jae-yong was arrested in 2017 for bribery linked to a friend of which South Korean president?

He allegedly paid about $37.6 million to win approval for a merger of two Samsung affiliates.

Which president pardoned Lee Jae-yong in August 2022, two months before he became Samsung chairman?

He had been sentenced to two and a half years in January 2021.

Which Tokyo university, a rival of Keio, did Lee Jae-yong's father and grandfather attend?

His bachelor's degree, in East Asian history, is from Seoul National University.

What was the first Samsung handheld mobile phone, made in 1988?

Samsung's mobile business had begun with a car phone in 1984.

To which two countries did Samsung move its mobile phone production after leaving China in 2019?

Samsung also stopped making laptops and TVs at its Chinese factories in 2020.

Where did Samsung place in Interbrand's 2024 ranking of the world's most valuable brands?

Interbrand placed it behind only Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google; its blue logo is meant to symbolise stability and reliability.

What colour is the basic Samsung logo?

The company says it symbolises stability, reliability and corporate social responsibility.

Which Winter Olympics did Samsung sponsor in 1998 as it pivoted towards major sporting events?

The strategy came as Lee Kun-hee shifted the company from under-selling consumer lines towards components and brand building.

To which company did Samsung sell its hard disk drive business for $1.4 billion in 2011?

Five years later Samsung launched a 15.36 TB SSD priced at $10,000, the first commercial solid-state drive that large.

What is Ballie, demonstrated by Samsung at CES 2024?

It is designed to help with daily tasks, monitor pets and integrate with SmartThings-connected appliances.

What distinction is claimed for Samsung's SCH-M210 handset of 1999-2000?

Samsung's first smartphone, the SPH-i300, followed in 2001, and the company popularised the clamshell design in the early 2000s.

In which Chinese city is the Samsung plant that made about 40% of its NAND flash in 2021?

The facility opened in 2014, even as Samsung wound down phone, laptop and TV manufacturing in China.

Under what brand did Samsung sell personal computers in the 1980s and early 1990s?

FCC filings from the period still referred to the machines as Samsung products.