Samsung’s perpetual crisis

Hello, it’s Yoolim reporting from Seoul. It’s always monsoon season at Samsung. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Google f [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hello, it’s Yoolim reporting from Seoul. It’s always monsoon season at Samsung. But first... Three things you need to know today: • Google faces a South African [antitrust crackdown]( • Amazon is [doubling its same-day delivery]( facilities • Foxconn plans [$500 million component plants]( in India Sun showers I arrived in Seoul during a stretch of unusually hot summer days. I had flown six hours from Singapore, where I live, for a week of Samsung [earnings]( and an Unpacked event, where the company unveiled a [new lineup of foldable smartphones](. In South Korea, the summer begins with the sound of cicadas. Then the monsoon sets in. It had rained for several days, a torrential downpour. That stopped for a day or so, only to begin anew. Samsung Electronics Co. had planned the Unpacked event, the first on its home turf, partly as a showcase of Seoul as a technology and pop culture capital. But it decided to cancel the outdoor festivities due to unpredictable weather. Instead, it created a Seoul-themed indoor area for event guests, crafted by Chae Kyung-sun, art director of the global hit television series Squid Game. It’s hard to create a simulated version of Seoul that’s a better advertisement for Samsung than the city itself. Walking the streets is like experiencing a live action Samsung commercial. Foldable phones can be seen all over, with ready access to the near-ubiquitous free Wi-Fi around town. On TV, K-dramas feature beautiful men and women flaunting Z Flip phones. Two of my taxi drivers had Galaxy Folds, which opens like a book and cost over $1,500 apiece. They said they like the bigger screen for navigation. The last time I did a [deep dive into Samsung]( was 2010. The company was trying to shift its rigid corporate culture to become a global innovator. It was unclear whether it would succeed, but it worked. The biggest threat to that period of success came in 2016, when Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 phones began spontaneously combusting. DJ Koh, the former head of the smartphone business who presided over the crisis, reflects on that period in a new book. Koh’s memoir, What Is Work, demonstrates the mindset of 38 years inside Samsung. In his descriptions of exploding phone batteries or coping with the loss of hearing in one ear, the reader begins to see Koh’s life as a series of obstacles and a man determined to succeed. Despite how far Samsung has come, the company tends to fixate on dark clouds in the forecast. For one, it needs to appeal to young people back home. Among South Koreans aged 18 to 29, twice as many own iPhones as Samsung phones, a Gallup survey found. The company, a bellwether for the industry because of its leading position in chips, electronics and smartphones, said last week that its net income fell 86% to 1.55 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in the quarter that ended in June. There’s still plenty for Samsung to feel good about. The stock is up about 26% this year. The story of Samsung is often told as a parade of important products. But from the day of its founding right up to the present, Samsung has believed that it can drown at any time if it becomes complacent. It’s that sense of perpetual crisis that has propelled the company. —[Yoolim Lee](mailto:yoolim@bloomberg.net) The big story US and European officials are growing increasingly concerned about China’s accelerated push into the production of older-generation [semiconductors]( and are debating new strategies to contain the country’s expansion. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV interview]( with SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. Get fully charged Investors on Wall Street and beyond are betting that the great tech rally of 2023 has [staying power](, even as they appear skeptical that the AI era will live up to the hype. Pearson will introduce [generative AI study tools]( into its online higher education platform in time for the upcoming academic year, as the education publisher seeks to allay investor concern over the threat of AI to digital education services. Adobe’s blistering rally has [further to go](, according to a Morgan Stanley analyst. Hedge funds and other money managers are increasingly [leaning on ChatGPT]( for marketing and to summarize vast reports, according to a new survey. 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