How did Lee Byung-chul start the multinational conglomerate company Samsung in 1938 in Japanese-ruled Korea?

In 1938, during the Japanese-ruled Korea, Lee Byung-chul (1910-1987) founded Mitsubishi Trading Company or ‘Samsung Sanghoe’. Samsung started as a small trading company with 40 employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyodong). It dealt in dried-fish, locally grown groceries and noodles. When the company prospered, the offices were relocated to Seoul in 1947.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was forced to leave Seoul and started a sugar refinery in Busan, formerly romanticized as Pusan and now officially known as Busan Metropolitan City. Today it is South Korea’s second-most populous city after Seoul. He expanded his business to start the largest woolen mill ever in the country.

Today, the Samsung group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate privately-owned company, headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand. It is the largest South Korean business conglomerate. Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea’s total exports. Samsung’s revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea’s $1,082 billion gross domestic product (GDP).

Lee Byung-chug is one of South Korea’s most successful businessmen. He was the son of a wealthy landowning aristocrat family who attended Waseda University in Tokyo but did not complete his degree. the name Samsung means ‘three stars’.