The Samsung Group

The Samsung Group (Korean: 삼성그룹) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's largest chaebol and the world's largest conglomerate by revenue[3][4] with an annual revenue of US $173.4 billion in 2008.[2] The meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung (三星) is "tristar" or "three stars".

The Samsung Group is composed of numerous international affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand including Samsung Electronics, the world's largest electronics company by sales.[5][6] Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second largest shipbuilder,[7] Samsung Engineering was ranked 35th, Samsung C&T 72nd in a 2009 ranking of 225 global construction firms compiled by the Engineering News-Record, a U.S. construction journal,[8] Samsung Life Insurance was ranked at 14th in a 2009 ranking of Fortune Global 500 Industries,[9] Samsung Everland, South Korea's first theme park opened in 1976 as Yongin Farmland. It is now the fifth most popular theme park in the world, beating out Epcot, Disney MGM and Disney's Animal Kingdom.[10] and Shilla Hotel, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group, the Shilla Seoul, has been ranked #58 among the "2009 World's Best Top 100 Hotels" in the annual reader survey conducted by the prestigious international business magazine, Institutional Investor.[11]

Samsung Group accounts for more than 20% of South Korea's total exports,[12] and in many domestic industries, Samsung Group is the sole monopoly dominating a single market, its revenue as large as some countries' total GDP. In 2006, Samsung Group would have been the 35th largest economy in the world if ranked, larger than that of Argentina.[13] The company has a powerful influence on the country's economic development, politics, media and culture, being a major driving force behind the Miracle on the Han River; many businesses today use its international success as a role model.