During my research for my Final Cultural Presentation, I came across the word chaebol, 재벌 [t͡ɕæ-bol], a fair amount of times. Chaebols are large, family-controlled conglomerates that have dominated the country’s economy for decades. The one I’ll be focusing on for my cultural artifact is Samsung.
In a Bloomberg article, the author Peter Pae states that South Korea’s economic transformation into one of the world’s largest exporters owes a lot of its success to chaebols. Other long-time pillars of the nation’s “miracle economy” include LG, Hyundai, SK, Lotte and—the largest of them all—Samsung. The company is known around the world for its smartphones, and a huge competitor to Apple. But in its home market of South Korea, the huge company is a whole lot more than just a tech brand. According to a CNN Business article, South Koreans can be born in Samsung-owned medical center, grow up learning to read and write with the help of Samsung tables and go on to attend the Samsung-affiliated Sungkyunkwan University. They may then live in a Samsung-built apartment complex, fitted out with the company’s appliances and electronics. South Koreans can even end up at a Samsung funeral parlor when they die. The article further states that its various affiliated companies account for more than 20% of the entire market value of the Korean Stock Exchange and the conglomerate’s businesses are estimated to account for around 15% of South Korea’s entire economy. Samsung’s success at home and abroad—due to its smartphones—has made it a key symbol of South Korea’s economic transformation. South Korea went from one of the world’s poorest countries after World War II to one of the richest in recent years. Steve Chung, a Korea expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kon, says many South Koreans still have a lot of respect for the economic model that “helped their nation build up throughout the last 40 years”.
The articles have also stated the huge political corruption scandal that has engulfed Samsung and other chaebols; however, my main focus was to research why Samsung was so prominent in Korea. I’ve always wondered why in Korean dramas or Koreans in general used Samsung. That might just be my own pigeon-holed view with technology since Apple is so prevalent in America, but the question has always lingered at the back of my mind. The information presented in the articles makes a lot of sense aligned with the information I had found while I was researching for my Final Cultural Presentation. South Korea has a lot of pride in their nation’s accomplishments. So, it isn’t surprising that the company that led the country out of its economic turmoil is so prevalent in South Korea’s everyday life. Although, I was pretty shocked to find that there was a Samsung-affiliated university, economically, it makes sense.
Another interesting fact I found is, despite the strong hold Samsung has on the Korean population, there’s an overwhelmingly high number of Koreans that are drawn to apple (“We Asked Koreans ‘Apple vs. Samsung’ and Their Answers May Surprise You”, 2018). As for why, most responded that Apple products were “prettier”, while others remarked that Apple “has their own vibe” and that they’re “cooler”. There was, however, one Samsung fan, Cheon Kyeong, who told the interviewer that he preferred Samsung devices because Apple is “too difficult to use”. I found that to be amusing because that’s how many American Apple-users perceive Samsung smartphones, including me. Despite their remarks, Samsung shipped far more smartphones than Apple—295 million to 193 million, in 2019 (“Apple vs Samsung”, 2020).
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/republic-samsung
https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/17/technology/samsung-south-korea-daily-life/index.html
https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/koreans-apple-vs-samsung-answers-surprise/
Artifacts:
Replies