Do You Know Samsung Has A Military Department?

Prepare to have your mind blown by some crazy facts about Samsung.

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I was surfing internet,in the hopes of finding something interesting and worthwhile to read and fortunately stumbled upon a few videos and sites about the vast categories and companies that come under Samsung.It inspired me to write this story.Prepare to have your mind blown!

Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-Chul in 1938. And surprisingly, it was not a tech company or even remotely close to it! Samsung sold groceries and local household food such as noodles. Soon they expanded and started selling sugar and alike items.

Lee Byung-Chul

We all associate Samsung with technology however they are much more than that. Here is a list of various sectors that fall under Samsung:

1. Electronics:-

2. Since 1993, Samsung Electronics is the largest producer of memory chips in the world, even iPhones use Samsung chips.

3. Samsung Electro-Mechanics

4. Samsung Techwin — works on surveillance, aeronautics, automation, and weapons technology.

5. Samsung Mobile display

6. Samsung digital imaging

2. Finance:

• Samsung life insurance securities

• Investment trust management

• Venture investment

3. Engineering and Construction:

• Samsung Engineering and Construction

• Samsung trading and investment

• Samsung Heavy industries

• Under heavy industries, Samsung has the most efficient shipbuilding center in the world with over 400 million sq.ft. in size.

4. Others:

• Samsung Petrochemicals

• Samsung BP Chemicals

• Sherill industries(Marketing)

• Owns Hotels and Resorts

• Medical and Health Center

• Economic research institute

• Works in a joint venture with Renault to manufacture cars for over 20 years.

• Samsung Fashion is its expansion in fashion and clothing line, they also have a research lab for drones, robotics, and 3D printing and VR.

• Runs the largest theme park with a zoo in Korea.

The list is long but some eye-catching and amusing sectors are manufacturing cars, running the largest Theme Park in Korea, investing heavily in Fubu company which is also Samsung’s first fashion partnership, and ventures in heavy industries such as shipbuilding and weapons.

Samsung even contributes about 17% to South Korea’s $1,082 billion GDP.

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Samsung is the largest memory chip maker and even the first-ever iPhone had Samsung’s chip. Besides this, Samsung also produces 98% of the AMOLED display panels. Heck, they even have their own mobile processors named Exynos and camera sensors!

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Samsung has over 490,000 employees globally which is more than Apple, Microsoft, and Google combined. How they afford to have such a huge payroll you may ask; Samsung made $305 billion in revenue in 2014 which was over 4 times that of Google and about twice that of Apple that year! It is a crazy amount taking into account that the mobile-sector of Samsung is half of that of Apples’. Samsung actually earns a lot off of Apple and other manufacturers by supplying them with memory chips, display panels, etc.

Samsung spends over $15 billion in research and development, and no doubt they are a flexible, adaptive, and innovative company and not just on paper. Samsung’s laptop released during the 1990s was revolutionary and 2 years ahead of its competitors then. Even in recent years, they have managed to perfect the S-Pen included in their Galaxy Note lineup devices.

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Samsung Techwin is the Korean manufacturer’s defense branch, aimed to promote stability and peace. It has produced some world-class artillery systems such as the Howitzer M109A2, K9 Thunder, and other weapons. These are currently in use by Poland, Turkey, and South Korea. In fact, many of their weaponry is compatible and supplement each other. For instance, K9 Thunder is more remarkable when combined with K10 Ammunition.

Oh by the way did I mention that Samsung owns a city?

Samsung owns an entire city, called Samsung Digital City, where there are few of the company’s businesses.

Samsung even built Burj Khalifa and other well-known skyscrapers!

Photo by Thomas Drouault on Unsplash

Samsung went from selling groceries to a multi-sector billion dollars worth company specializing not only in mobile tech but health, weapons, and clean energy.

Samsung means 3 stars in Korean, indicating prosperity, eternity, and powerful. The current Samsung logo is elliptical and has openings from two sides where letters S and G are placed. This openness reflects the work culture at Samsung which is supposed to be open-minded and flexible.

They have indeed followed this philosophy even after about a century!