Samsung
South Korean multinational conglomerate
Samsung Group (Korean: 삼성; pronounced [sʰamsɔŋ]; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous affiliated businesses, most of which operate under the Samsung brand, and is the largest chaebol (family-controlled conglomerates in South Korea). As of 2024, Samsung has the world's fifth-highest brand value.
Founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul as a trading company, Samsung diversified into various sectors, including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail, over the next three decades. In the late 1960s, Samsung entered the electronics industry, followed by the construction and shipbuilding sectors in the mid-1970s—areas that would fuel its future growth. After Lee died in 1987, Samsung was divided into five business groups: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group, and JoongAng Group.
Key affiliates of Samsung include Samsung Electronics, the world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker by 2017 revenues; Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second-largest shipbuilder by 2010 revenues; and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T Corporation, ranked 13th and 36th among global construction companies, respectively. Other significant subsidiaries are Samsung Life Insurance, the 14th-largest life insurance company globally, and Cheil Worldwide, the world's 15th-largest advertising agency by 2012 revenues.
Etymology
According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja Samsung (三星) is three stars. The three stands for something big, numerous and powerful, while stars stands for everlasting or eternal.
“Samsung” enters the record as south Korean multinational conglomerate. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Samsung, South and Korean can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Samsung” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Samsung, South and Korean provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20716. VIAF identifies the subject as 4155103912676200114. None of the 7 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1938, 1987 and 2017.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Samsung”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Samsung primary sources, Samsung archive and Samsung research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Samsung”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Samsung” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.