15 Trillion R&D
Samsung Electronics will invest the highest amount of money in its history for research and development (R&D), even while going through troubles due to performance deteriorations last year.
According to an audit report of Samsung Electronics on March 8, its total R&D investments reached 15.325507 trillion won (US$13.809354 billion) in 2014.
The amount accounts for 7.4 percent of the total sales (206.25987 trillion won, or US$185.66895 billion). The monthly average is 1.2771 trillion won (US$1.1508 billion).
The R&D investments increased 3.7 percent from that (14.780432 trillion won, or US$13.318203 billion) of the previous year. It means that R&D investment was still active, although sales decreased 9.8 percent.
Instead, Samsung Electronics reduced the expenses for marketing activities including advertising and sales promotion. Last year's advertising expenses decreased to 3.773649 trillion won (US$3.396321 billion), down 9.4 percent from the previous year (4.16529 trillion won, or US$3.74947 billion). The sales promotion expenses fell 3.2 percent to 7.760648 trillion won (US$6.992887 billion) from 8.19462 trillion won (US$7.38392 billion) in 2013.
The performances of Samsung Electronics in Q3 last year went back to those of 2012 due to the slow sales of strategic smartphones, including the Galaxy S5.