WEBVTT - The Samsung Story Part 1 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.640 stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.880 I'm your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I'm here at 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.119 how stuff works dot com headquarters, and I'm raring to 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.280 go over another episode of tech Stuff. This is actually 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.440 gonna be a part one of a series because we're 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.280 looking at another big company, and as you guys know, 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.640 when I cover these companies, there's usually so much information 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.159 that I have to break it into a couple of 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.960 different episodes. So today is part one on the consumer 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:46.040 electronics giant Samsung. The company's had a lot of high 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.320 profile news items come out over the last year and 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.320 a half or so, and we'll get to those eventually, 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.240 but today we're gonna focus on how it came about. Now, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.560 Samsung is a Korean company. That mean there's going to 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.200 be a lot of Korean names that I am going 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:09.000 to slaughter in this episode, and I sincerely apologize from 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.360 the beginning at how I am going to butcher the 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.600 pronunciation of these names. I'm going to do my best, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.039 but chalk it up to cultural ignorance, folks. I just 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.880 don't have the experience with the Korean language. To say 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.320 all the names properly. I will, I will try my 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.440 hardest to do it, but I just want to make 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.040 that clear because I know it's important, and I apologize 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.360 for not being able to nail it, but it's largely 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.639 just due to my lack of exposure to the Korean language. Now, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.160 Samsung was founded in ninety eight by lie Bjong Chol, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.760 and originally it was a very modest company when it 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.320 first started, but today it's a giant with more than 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:59.080 a hundred seventy billion dollars in revenue. So let's talk 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.400 about it's humble beginnings and how it first got started, 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:08.040 because it was entirely different when it first when it 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:14.519 was first founded. So here's another tricky thing about this company. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.239 To understand it's it's rise, you also need to understand 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.160 a little bit about the history of Korea. And this 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.160 is an area of the world that I had not 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.920 really studied that much. East Asia has not been one 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.440 of the focuses of my studies, and so for a 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.280 lot of this it was all new information to me, 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.400 and it really displayed to me my depth of ignorance 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.920 of East Asian history. But it is fascinating and it 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.200 does in fact tie into Samsung. It has a profound 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.480 effect on the history of the company and even a 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.920 motivation for the existence of the company in the first place. 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.040 So we're going to look a little bit at world 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.639 history before we get into the history of the company itself. 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.280 Bear with me, because, like I said, it's fascinating and 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.360 it's important so that you understand why the company is 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:09.800 the way it is now. One thing that we have 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.320 to keep in mind at the beginning is that when 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.080 the company was founded. When Samsung was first founded, the 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:23.280 Korean people were an occupied people. For centuries, Korea had 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.320 been the center of power struggles between other nations. The 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.160 Korean Peninsula is incredibly valuable for multiple reasons, and so 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.959 a lot of different countries had interest in trying to 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.160 control it, putting the Korean people in the middle as 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.760 a result. In the nineteenth century, so the eighteen hundreds, 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.119 the two main powers that were struggling over Korea were 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.720 Japan and China. Uh there was actually a war fought 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:57.920 largely on the Korean Peninsula between Japan and China, and 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.720 the Japanese won the ConFlat and essentially eliminated China's interests 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:08.640 in Korea, but Korea's queen formally will not formally casually 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:13.560 really known as Queen Men and later known as Empress Myongong, 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.320 was hopeful that she would be able to entice Russia 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:25.000 to support Korea against Japan. So there grew a new rivalry. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.320 You know, China was now fading away after losing to 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.000 Japan in this conflict. There's a new rivalry between Japan 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:38.239 and Russia, and Queen Men was hopeful that Russia would 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.640 end up helping out Korea because she really didn't want 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:49.200 Japanese influence infiltrating the country. She was technically the wife 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.880 of the king, the last of a dynasty of kings 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.839 in Korea, but had considerable influence. She was effectively a 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.800 ruler in Korea and had put several of her most 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:08.080 trusted advisers and relatives into high positions of power. She 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.440 was also pretty well liked by a lot of the 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:16.000 Korean populace, more so after the events I'm about to 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:21.200 describe happened. So the government of Japan viewed Queen Men 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.880 as an impediment to their plans, and they tried numerous 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.240 times to instill a rebellion against her to try and 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.240 encourage aspects of the Korean government to oppose Queen Men 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.560 and overthrow her, but they didn't really work. So the 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.359 Japanese government worked with these various political rivals but didn't 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.920 make a whole lot of progress, and they decided to 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:49.599 take more drastic measures. So on October eight, Japanese Ronan 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.479 in other words, warriors for higher working with some of 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:59.279 Queen Men's rivals, were able to infiltrate her palace. The 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.279 Ronan killed Queen Men. They assassinated her along with two 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.880 other ladies in waiting, and they positively identified Queen Men 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:11.080 as one of the three women. The fallout from this 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.159 act was considerable. Uh there were international pressures that forced 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.680 the Japanese government to put the people who were involved 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.279 in the assassination on trial. So the Japanese government did. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.880 They brought the people in, they gave them trials. However, 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:30.120 all of the people were eventually acquitted due to lack 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.240 of evidence according to the Japanese government, which did not 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:38.360 go over well in the international community either. Within Korea itself, 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.440 there was a growing sentiment that was anti Japanese. It 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.799 would already been present, but now it was really flaring 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.080 up in the wake of Queen Men's assassination. Things got 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.720 really complicated from there, so complicated that it's really not 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.240 my place to dive that deeply into the history, but 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.600 it is important to know the basics so that you 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.640 under stand the rise of Samsung Uh, and it also 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:09.159 gives you insight into the Korean mindset and philosophy of 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:14.160 the time. In King go Jong, who was husband to 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:19.000 Queen Men, founded the Empire of Korea, so this was 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.480 a new imperial line that he was attempting to establish 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.600 in Korea. Now, he had sought refuge in Russia after 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.080 his wife had been assassinated, but he had been pressured 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.120 to return to Korea the various governments around the world. 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.920 We're saying that he needed to be there to establish 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.240 this government or else Korea would be plunged into chaos. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.200 So he did return to Korea, and Uh ended up 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:53.400 giving Queen Men her title of Empress posthumously. Japan continued 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.760 its efforts to expand into East Asia, and then there 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:02.400 was the Russo Japanese warre between Russia and Japan, which 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.320 way waged from nineteen o five to our nineteen o 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.120 four to nineteen o five. Sorry, now, the Japanese military 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.760 won some key victories there and then really started to 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.720 put pressure on Korea. As a result, they compelled the 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.240 emperor to sign the Protectorate Treaty of nineteen o five, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:24.280 which made Korea a protectorate of Japan. Now that largely 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.520 stripped Korea of its nation status. It was technically a nation, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.720 but really only in name. It was more of an 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.960 extended property of Japan at this point, and in nineteen ten, 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.240 Japan went ahead and formally annexed the Empire of Korea. 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.480 So over the next decade, from about nineteen ten to 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.920 about nineteen nineteen, Japan forces subjugated Korea using force and 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.679 severely restricting the rights of Koreans as a result. That 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:59.839 particular era ended in nineteen twenty because the Japanese in 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.280 her was shocked when Koreans were able to organize mass 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:09.960 coordinated protests across the entirety of Korea, and the emperor 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.320 realized if things didn't change soon, he was going to 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.600 have a full scale rebellion in Korea and did not 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.840 want that to happen. So at that point, Japan started 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.600 to ease back on some of these restrictions and things 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:30.360 got a little less uh tense in Korea. The reason 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.920 why I tell you all this about this era between 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.280 nineteen ten and nineteen twenty is that on February twelfth, 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.640 nineteen ten, Lieb Young chull, the founder of Samsung, was born. 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.360 So he was born shortly well, right around the time 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:49.440 that Japan was was formally occupying Korea. So this is 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.559 a very tumultuous time in Korea's history. Now, his family 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.200 were well off and so he was in a better 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.720 position than a lot of his fellow Koreans. He was 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.160 from a wealthy family. They were landowners and they made 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.839 their money through being landlords. They were rent out their 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.960 property to other people. Now Leave Young Chal would study 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.719 in local Korean schools before he would go off to 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:19.040 Tokyo U to attend Waseda University. But his father passed 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.719 away while he was in school, and so he ended 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.400 up dropping out of college to return home to Korea 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.240 and take over the family business, so he never earned 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.319 his degree. That family business at the time was running 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.160 a rice mill as well as being the overseer of 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.559 these landlord properties, and the rice mill saw a lot 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:41.400 of success. But at that time Leave Young Chill began 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:46.320 to feel a greater ambition something more important than running 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.400 a successful business. He wanted to do more than that. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.520 And we're gonna skip ahead now to night. So in 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.160 this time he's running the business everything successful. He feels 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.720 like Korea really needs something to help inspire the people 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:08.000 and to jump start the economy of Korea itself because 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:12.280 it was so dependent upon Japan, and that was something 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:18.440 that was of great concern to Korean's So the country 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:23.040 had been under Japanese occupation for nearly three decades at 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.520 this point in nineteen thirty eight, and since nineteen thirty one, 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.679 the Japanese rule had become more restrictive. So y one, 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.920 things had eased up a bit, but from nineteen thirty 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.280 one up to nineteen thirty eight they had gotten worse again. Uh. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.560 This was called the Assimilation period, in which Japan was 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.280 effectively trying to wipe out Korean culture and make Korea 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:52.080 essentially just part of Japan, officially part of Japan, and 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:56.160 really exploiting Korea's resources as well. Now, lie Byong Chol 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.560 wanted to make a difference. He wanted to create a 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.520 successful business that Korea could call its own and create 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.840 an industry where one had not existed before the Japanese 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.800 occupation had brought a couple of positive things to Korea, 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:15.560 including industrialization and modernization, two things the country was far 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.880 behind in compared to the rest of the world in 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.680 general and in East Asia in particular. But as a 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.480 result of the Koreans were paying an incredibly high price. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:31.480 They were under restrictive rule, and the Japanese government and 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:38.720 Japanese occupying forces were taking great liberties and and exploiting 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.120 people in horrible ways that I'm not gonna go into here, 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.200 but it was it was not great. Lieb Young chul 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.839 was hoping that he could leverage the advances that the 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.200 Japanese had brought with them and turned them to Korea's 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:57.360 advantage and to truly have Korea emerge into the twentieth 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.960 century as a power player. There was a long long 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.679 way to go, so to pursue this, he decided to 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:10.280 sell off the rice mill and to invest in a 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.720 new company, and on March first night, he founded the 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:20.720 Samsung Trading Company UH. The initial investment, according to multiple sources, 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:25.640 was about twenty seven dollars at the time. That's how 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.560 much the founding Samsung Trading Company costs. Twenty seven bucks 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:36.240 that was thirty thousand one, which is the Korean currency 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.800 w o N the one. If we throw twenty seven 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.520 dollars into an inflation calculator and adjust for inflation from 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.440 eight to modern day, you would get somewhere in the 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:51.280 neighborhood of four hundred sixty dollars. But we have to 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.880 keep in mind that this is not a apples to 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.280 apples thing. Whenever we're doing currency conversions and inflation comparisons, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.400 we have to make a lot of assumption. So let's 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.439 just say founded Samsung with an initial investment that was 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.480 somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred bucks. So imagine 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.120 saving up five hundred dollars and then founding a company. 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.360 That's essentially what he managed to do back in ninety eight. 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.280 As the company started to form, he hired on people, 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:21.400 and initially the company had about forty employees. Now the 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:28.400 company's name Samsung means literally in Korean three stars. The 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.600 number three has significance in Korean culture. It often is 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.200 associated with something that is really momentous or really strong 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:42.560 and powerful, and the motto of the company is be great, strong, 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.560 and everlasting. Seems like a pretty tall order, but the 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.760 company has done pretty well since then. It's initial business 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.840 was selling common goods and transporting products across Korea and 0:14:55.960 --> 0:15:01.000 into China, So it was essentially a gross restore and 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.160 a trucking company when it first started. That's what Samsung's 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:11.000 business was, was groceries and transportation. Uh. A lot of 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.800 company origin stories when they talk about Samsung say that 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.840 it was essentially dealing in dried fish, which in fact 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.360 was one of the main products that they carried was 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:27.040 dried fish Korea. That's a that was a major product there. 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:33.880 But I think it oversimplifies the position that Samsung was in. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.760 I think a lot of people like to use that 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:41.080 as a descriptor because they juxtaposed that humble origin of 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.560 Samsung being a company that sold dried fish and transport 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:51.480 it into China to Samsung the multinational global electronics company, 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.000 the giant that it is today. And I think that 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.480 undersells what actually was happening. If I'm being honest, Uh, 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.320 it's more of a story about a businessman who was 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:07.120 trying to push against opposition in order to establish a 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:12.040 new sense of identity within Korea. This was a country 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.320 that had been the subject of interference from multiple countries 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.160 for much of its history, and in fact, for the 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.840 next several decades, would still be the subject of a 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.400 lot of foreign meddling. And so here was an attempt 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.720 by a Korean citizen to say, let's make our own 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:35.640 name and not have Korea be this extension of some 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.000 other countries identity. And this is a big deal. But 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.120 it is true that Samsung's early history had little to 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.880 do with technology, apart from leveraging modern transportation conveniences like 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.680 motorized trucks, which were pretty new to Korea at that time. 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.920 The company saw success in its early years, so they 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:01.240 did pretty well. The Japanese occupation of Korea ended in 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.399 nineteen forty five when Japan's surrendered at the end of 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.240 World War Two, and at this point Korea was again 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.760 in a time of turmoil. Japan's withdrawal from Korea didn't 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.960 mean everything was hunky dory. In fact, things got really complicated. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:23.320 In theory, Korea was a single independent country, but in 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.800 practice that really wasn't the case. The United States and 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.480 the r and Russia both or the Soviet Union, both 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:35.680 had interests in Korea, and uh decided to essentially divide 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:40.639 up the country. So everything above they parallel. That's what 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.080 Russia was looking at, and everything below that that's what 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.280 the United States was looking at. And a new leader 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.879 named Li Sung Man rose to take control of what 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:55.080 would eventually become South Korea. And he wasn't the leader 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.680 that all Koreans are, even most Koreans necessarily preferred, but 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.200 he had the support of the United States, largely because 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:06.119 he was a staunch anti communist. So it wasn't a 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.879 true republic. The people of Korea didn't get to vote 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:16.400 on Li Sung Man establishing control. He was essentially instilled 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:23.160 as leader by the United States. Now, meanwhile, again the 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.320 Soviet Union was looking at the northern part of Korea, 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:33.359 and the Soviet Union established its own UH leadership that 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:38.080 was totally separate from this leadership in South Korea, which, 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.840 as you would imagine, caused a little bit of friction. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.600 Both governments, both the one in the northern section of 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:46.399 the country and the one in the southern section of 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:51.200 the country, claimed leadership across the entire nation. So you 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.760 have two different governments both claiming to be the leader 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:02.720 of Korea overall. UH. Now, technically the United States and 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:07.880 the Soviet Union had joint trusteeship overall of Korea, and 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.800 technically they were supposed to come to an agreement as 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:15.600 to what the government of Korea would be following its 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.240 release from Japan, and then from that point forward, theoretically 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.960 the people of Korea would have a say in how 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.000 their government was formed. But that never happened because the 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.680 Soviet Union in the United States didn't see eye to eye. 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:37.560 They completely disagreed with each other's choices, and so this 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:43.320 leadership question became a stalemate. Now, at the same time, 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.440 Lieb Young chul wanted his company to reinvest in Korea 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.159 and that was continuing to struggle in the wake of 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.080 World War Two and the interests of the United States 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.960 and the Soviet Union, so in he founded the Samsung 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.720 Construction and Trading Corporation or Samsung CNT. Now, this would 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.760 eventually become the parent company of all the other Samsung companies, 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:11.280 at least for a while. And uh so Samsung CNT 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.320 became kind of like the the top notch company under 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.640 which all the others would fall. And often you'll see 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.000 that the founding date for Samsung CNT is nineteen thirty eight, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.160 although really that was the Samsung Trading Company the Samsung 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:31.399 CNT was sort of the transformation of that company. Uh So, 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.360 I guess it really just depends on your perspective as 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.239 to whether or not you would call the founding of 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.560 it being ninety eight when the initial company started, or 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:44.080 nineteen forty eight when they formally created the the organization 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.480 known as Samsung CNT. This gets way more complicated the 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:50.760 longer I go. So if you think that part is 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.560 a little confusing, I apologize. It's not gonna get any 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.880 easier to understand. In fact, it gets really messy when 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.200 we get up into the eighties, nineties and the two 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.920 thousands for Samsung's history. Now, another big thing happened in 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.680 that's the same year that Korea officially split into two nations. 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.919 Remember I mentioned you had these two different governments that 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.080 were in opposition to each other, both laying claim to 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:22.200 the entire Korean country, and that could not sustain itself. 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.520 In the South, uh Sing Manrie established the Republic of Korea, 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.600 and in the North Kim Il sung became the leader 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:35.360 of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The United Nations 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.320 only recognized the Republic of Korea the South Korean government 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.720 as being legitimate Meanwhile, the Northern Korean government began seizing 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.439 companies and properties that were originally owned by Japanese or 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:54.040 pro Japanese interests, and then claiming those companies for the state, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:56.880 so they were state owned and operated. At that point 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:02.159 they had been seized by force. Tensions between North and 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.159 South Korea increased, with each planning to use military force 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.399 against the other in order to reunite the country under 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.919 one government. Now, at this time, Samsung had established a 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.480 new headquarters building in Seoul, but in nineteen fifty North 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.520 Korean forces invaded South Korea and the two nations officially 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:27.399 entered the Korean War. At that point, Samsung relocated space 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:32.680 of operations to Busan. Soul eventually would fall to North Korea, 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.399 but it would eventually also be returned back to South 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.800 Korea once the two countries negotiated peace, and at the 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.920 conclusion of the war, Samsung would return to Seoul as 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.239 its base of operations. Now, I've got a lot more 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:48.960 to talk about once we've gotten to this point where 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.200 things are a little more steady for Samsung. But before 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.080 I do that, let's take a quick break to thank 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:08.160 our sponsor. By nineteen fifty one, Korean War is now 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:14.520 technically over. Things would continue to fall out until nineteen 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:17.320 fifty three. But nineteen fifty one, Samsung was pulling in 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:22.480 revenues of two billion one By today's exchange rate, that's 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:26.399 about one point seven five million dollars. But keep in 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.560 mind that, you know, like I said earlier, when you 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.520 talk about currency conversions and just adjusting for inflation and 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:35.720 that sort of thing, there are a lot of factors 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:40.160 that that are present that you can't necessarily account for easily. 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:42.720 So just think of that as like a round number. 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:45.119 So we're around two million dollars in revenue, which was 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.520 a significant amount for a brand new company. I mean 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:53.040 brand new in the sense of this. Korea had no 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:59.200 real corporations that were of any real significance around this time, 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:02.280 and had some industries and had some companies. Don't get 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:05.960 me wrong, but Samsung was trying to establish a brand 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:11.760 new era in the post industrial world of Korea, which 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:18.239 underwent industrialization very rapidly and under Japanese occupation. It's just 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:22.200 important to know that the company had been successful even 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:24.600 in the wake of the Korean War. Now, during this time, 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:28.600 the company expanded its operations by purchasing other businesses and 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:31.920 getting into new industries. In other words, they were diversifying. 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:36.440 It wasn't just groceries and transportation. So was it consumer electronics. 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:39.719 Not yet. It would be a long time before they 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.040 would actually get into consumer electronics. But this was in 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.919 part an effort to get Korea independent of imports. Korea 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:52.600 was importing tons of stuff, and Samsung leadership said, what 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:55.600 if we were able to produce these things within Korea 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.280 so that we removed that dependence upon other countries and 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:03.879 grew the economy of Korea as a result. It was 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:06.480 a way of trying to stand on their own. So 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:10.800 the new industries included a sugar refinery and a woolen mill. 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:14.720 And since it's gonna be a while before consumer electronics 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:18.040 enters the picture, we're gonna talk about how those work 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:21.919 because they involve technology. So we're gonna talk about sugar 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:25.520 refineries and woolen mills now, because I thought, why not, 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.240 it's the perfect opportunity. We'll start with sugar refineries. Now, 0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:34.960 the purpose of these of buildings, these manufacturing plants, these 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:39.000 factories is to purify or refine sugar. So, in other words, 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.840 this is all about getting rid of impurities to create 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:46.320 a pure and consistent product that table sugar type stuff 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:50.840 granulated sugar. Now, there are actually two types of facilities 0:25:50.880 --> 0:25:54.440 you would use with your typical sugar refinery if you're 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:59.560 using cane sugar. Uh. The first is a raw sugar mill, 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:03.840 which turns plants sugars into a raw form of sugar 0:26:03.880 --> 0:26:06.000 that you can find in many stores. There if you've 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:09.399 ever seen that golden sugar that you can use in 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:11.960 different places. A lot of trendy coffee shops use this 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:17.240 raw sugar. That's what comes from sugar mills. But you 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:20.040 would also take this raw sugar and you could give 0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:24.240 it to a sugar refinery which will further refine the product. 0:26:24.280 --> 0:26:27.879 And that's where you get the white sugar that is 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:32.159 free of various impurities. So sugar starts off as sucros. 0:26:32.960 --> 0:26:36.280 It's a carbohydrate that you would find in plants, and 0:26:36.320 --> 0:26:40.479 it's a byproduct of, or actually a product of photosynthesis. 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:43.479 That's the process by which plants take energy from the 0:26:43.480 --> 0:26:45.639 sun and they produce food that they can use for 0:26:45.680 --> 0:26:48.439 their own energy later on. Now, I'm not gonna go 0:26:48.480 --> 0:26:51.000 into the whole plant cycle here, because I assume you've 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:57.960 been through elementary biology. But just understand that plants take water, minerals, 0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:03.879 carbon dioxide, um and sunlight and end up producing, among 0:27:03.920 --> 0:27:08.000 other things, sucros, which eventually will undergo further transformations to 0:27:08.040 --> 0:27:12.640 become stuff like plant matter, fibers, complex starches, that kind 0:27:12.640 --> 0:27:17.600 of thing. Now, all green plants produce sugars, but some 0:27:17.680 --> 0:27:20.800 do it in higher concentrations than others and thus make 0:27:20.960 --> 0:27:24.480 a better product, are better crop for you to grow 0:27:24.520 --> 0:27:28.200 if you want to harvest sugar, and sugarcane is about 0:27:28.200 --> 0:27:32.359 twelve to four sucros, which is why we grew so 0:27:32.440 --> 0:27:34.920