Q 01/05

What does the name Samsung mean in Korean?

A) Rising sun

B) Three stars

C) Big river

D) Golden mountain

Answer · why

B) Three stars

Three stars: the founder wanted a company as powerful and everlasting as stars in the sky.

Q 02/05

Where did Samsung's first business export dried fish?

A) Manchuria

B) Taiwan

C) Siberia

D) Hawaii

Answer · why

A) Manchuria

Manchuria, and by the early 1950s the founder had branched out into sugar refining.

Q 03/05

Who founded Samsung?

A) Lee Kun-hee

B) Chung Ju-yung

C) Lee Byung-chul

D) Koo In-hwoi

Answer · why

C) Lee Byung-chul

Lee Byung-chul started it with 30,000 won, and his son Lee Kun-hee and grandson Lee Jae-yong went on to lead the company.

Q 04/05

Which Japanese company partnered Samsung in a 1969 electronics joint venture?

A) Sharp

B) Sanyo

C) Hitachi

D) Pioneer

Answer · why

B) Sanyo

Sanyo was the partner, and the Samsung-Sanyo venture went on to become part of today's Samsung Electronics.

Q 05/05

South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, such as Samsung, are known by what Korean word?

A) Keiretsu

B) Chaebol

C) Zaibatsu

D) Gongsa

Answer · why

B) Chaebol

Chaebol is written with the same characters as zaibatsu, the prewar family empires that the US occupation broke up.