Exponential Growth

 

Samsung Electronics announced on April 23 that the number of its employees at home and abroad totaled 319,000 as of the end of last year. The numbers were 286,000 in 2013 and 161,700 in 2008.

Samsung Electronics was founded in January 1969 with capital of US$330 million. Last year, its annual sales exceeded 205 trillion won (US$190 billion). The company had had 36 employees at its inception, but the number broke the 100,000 mark in 2004, the 200,000 mark in 2011, and 300,000 last year. In short, the company grew approximately 10,000-fold in 45 years.

Its rapid growth for the past three years can be attributed to overseas business expansion in China and Vietnam. The number of the company’s employees in Korea has remained at around 90,000 to 100,000 since 2011. Meanwhile, that of its employees working abroad reached 220,000 or so at the end of 2014.

The expansion is likely to continue for the time being. Thousands of people are scheduled to be directly employed for the construction of its semiconductor manufacturing plant that kicks off in Pyeongtaek next month.

In the meantime, Samsung Electronics is planning to double the number of its local employees in Vietnam, where its consumer electronics and mobile phone manufacturing bases are located, to about 130,000 before the end of next year. A similar plan is underway in Silicon Valley. The number of Samsung Electronics employees working there has topped 4,000.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution