South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding on Sunday. <br />To mark the occasion,... our Ko Roon-hee walks us through the company's half-a-century history that saw it rise from a tiny local operation to a multi-billion dollar brand known around the world.<br /> <br />Samsung Electronics was established as a corporation on January 13th, 1969.<br />In its first year, the company's sales were a mere 33-thousand U.S. dollars. <br />During its early years, the firm mainly focused on producing home electronics such as TVs, washing machines and refrigerators for the domestic market. <br />At the time, its sales were significantly lower than its local rival, Goldstar, currently known as LG Electronics.<br /><br />The company's fortunes started to change in 1984, when Samsung Electronics' sales recorded more than one-point-two billion dollars,... .surpassing LG Electronics for the first time.<br />The boom came as Samsung Electronics moved into the global market,.. mass producing color TVs and exporting them around the world.<br /><br />In 1980, Samsung Electronics merged with Samsung Semiconductor,... helping the company to break into the semiconductor market.<br />Samsung's record-breaking milestones included developing the world's first 64 megabit DRAM in 1992.<br /><br />Samsung Electronics continued to grow rapidly,... but it wasn't until the turn of the century that annual profits began to regularly pour in by the tens of billions of dollars.<br />Samsung Electronics posted sales of around 51-point-6 billion dollars in 2004.<br />By 2010, that figure had swelled to more than 100 billion. <br />In 2017, the South Korean tech giant posted record earnings on strong chip sales.<br />It was an amount four-point-three-seven million times higher than its first year sales in 1969. <br /><br />As the company expanded, its workforce exploded as well.<br />As of the third quarter of last year, Samsung Electronics employed more than 103-thousand people in South Korea.<br />Globally, it had more than 320-thousand workers on its books as of 2017. <br /><br />Local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute says Samsung's success can be attributed to its endless innovation, bold investment, and globalization in products and services. <br />The institute said such moves were only possible because of talented owners and professional businessmen working at the company over the years.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
