Samsung is in Crisis

Samsung has been on an unstoppable tear for the last decade, but has its luck finally run out. A stock panic triggered a $122 billion blow out. In this episode we'll see what's going on behind the scenes.

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Created by: Dagogo Altraide
Producers: Tawsif Akkas, Dagogo Altraide
Editors: Brayden Laffrey
Animator: Mathijs Luijten

[Tharros]

Me on my samsung phone watching a video about the fall of Samsung

[supercarshiv]

I was a full-time corporate employee at Samsung Electronics of America, in Orange County, CA.
I LOVED that job, I loved my co-workers, the higher ups I was interacting with. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had, a true dream job.

Come Sept. 27, 2024, they laid of 30% of us, it was a dark day.
They kept the contractors though.

I'm still trying to find another job since the lay offs.

[salmanazam]

This makes me appreciate how perfectly Nvidia understood the proverb "When everyone is digging for gold, sell shovels."

[originaozz]

2:39 Parasite's producer being a chaebol is so ironic, yet makes so much sense

[tiberiusclaudiusnerogermanicis]

Honestly.. samsung forgot who they are.... everyone chose samsung because they always offered the things apple didnt as far as their phones go.. expandable memory, removable battery (back in the day), head phone jack etc.. theyve taken all these things away.. people clearly aint happy.

[Kiwi-Ahh-Nah]

When I asked Samsung several years ago why we couldn't get the Snapdragon variant of their flagship phones in NZ they responded that the Snapdragon chip was not compatible in my country. I knew this was utter nonsense and that Samsung were, and still are, using countries like NZ as a dumping ground for their inferior Exynos chip.

[Jopie]

In Korea the normal solution to a company problems is spend more time at work. All that happens is the lights at the office stay on longer and staff spend time surfing the internet.

[Mrnovanova]

Samsung just got complacent. They used to be at the cutting edge and usually brought new features to phones years before companies like Apple. They had LG nipping at their heals, though. Eversince LG Mobile went bust, they started modeling their strategy after Apple. The problem with that is that unlike Apple, they dont have a cult. Chinese brands are the ones pushing innovation forward now.

[josuad]

Honestly, if Samsung could sell their Exynos chips in a way that don't insult every European and other global markets, it will sell. The problem with Exynos is Samsung tried to sell it off as a Snapdragon equivalent at exactly the same price, when in fact it isn't equal in performance. But despite that, Exynos is not a terrible chip, far from it. It is still a very well-performing flagship chip, just lagging a few percent behind the snapdragon. If only Samsung could release a special Exynos variant, and priced it like 50$ lower, I believe many will take it, because in the end of the day 99% of consumers won't notice such minimal difference in performance anyway.

And for Samsung foundry, man, I feel bad for them. They are trying, but sadly the industry simply have no place for #2, and that's precisely what they are, the number 2. I wish them well, since if Samsung flopped, TSMC will have exactly 0 competitor left and that can't be good for the market.

[cirillafionaelenriannon]

I worked at Samsung Device Solutions for a couple of years and quit in 2023. We could sense that something was wrong within management, as less effort was given to properly designing the circuits and more to discussing with customers how their specifications were outrageous and could not be met

[tyuzgbv]

That's troubling when a company is so big and important to the country that the executives are above the law.

[Daydream]

Theres a broader issue here in Korea which is the fact that the stock market is heavily skewed towards corporations instead of stock holders so Korean ppl themselves don’t want to invest in these mega corporations with huge influence over politicians anymore since the gov provides very little protection for investors. For example, it is extremely difficult to get a class action lawsuit going in court because theres so many bureaucratic hurdles you have to get through before you can even present your case in front of a judge so it is very popular amongst young people to invest in the US stock market or even crypto currencies instead unfortunately

[incyphe]

who knew the entire Samsung company would be 50% off Black Friday special.

[TheNefastor]

I visited a Samsung art museum in Seoul. They are literally into everything.

[Pihlalorjoone]

The one thing you missed in your arguments is that TSMC has build up a very good and productive relation with ASML, whereas the Korean basically try to fight ASML all the way. That makes it more understandable why TSMC is able to build better chips, while Samsung is loosing that ability. ASML coworkers love to go to TSMC, and hate, or even refuse, to go to Samsung.

[Zyo]

I've had a Galaxy S8 as just a personal sort of iPod device for years, and the sheer number of times Samsung has changed their terms of service since I've had it is staggering.

[DIYBill]

Samsung runs like it’s in crisis. This is the company way

[seahjenson]

Omg I didn’t realise that it has already been 10 years since that Samsung video. Congrats on making it this far and looking forward to seeing more content on the channel !

[RenatoT-sivv]

I worked at Samsung for 3 years and I loved it, very tough work and challenging working culture. After, SS every company I have been to feels more manageable.

[hassan]

4:27 could not be more of the case, when I worked at Samsung, you saw red tape and general disarray everywhere, it was insane. I was working on AI for a device that I couldn't even get my hands on, yet reviewers had them for testing -- I, someone whose work requires the product we're selling to get my work done, couldn't get the device! We had to use FPGAs and older models to simulate the newer device. And when our director left, it wasn't someone who had been at the office for say 20 years that was then promoted -- nope, it was some kid that was had just graduated and came over from a consulting gig that was the new director. All because he was connected. Most execs were non-korean so they weren't even considered. I used to wonder why samsung tech sometimes felt like it was all over the place, like the camera hardware would be great on the S series but then the pictures would come inferior to the competition -- i.e. because of the processing pipeline. Now I wonder how anything gets shipped at all at that place.