5 Main Tech Manufacturers That Are Owned By South Korean Firms

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Japan is usually the primary place that involves thoughts when Americans consider nations with outstanding tech manufacturers in East Asia, however South Korea can be an essential participant within the trade. Several main tech firms underwent speedy enlargement within the years following the devastation of the Korean War. Many of them began out small, however a long time of government-backed financial growth and asset placement in industries reminiscent of semiconductor manufacturing helped nurture their progress. This introduced the nation to the forefront of tech growth, main it to increase its attain and remodel itself right into a full-blown international tech powerhouse over the previous few a long time. South Korea is now residence to a handful of the globe’s largest tech firms, together with massive names with broad pursuits like Samsung and LG.

American customers would possibly already know among the greater South Korean firms which have their headquarters on the opposite facet of the globe, however many could be stunned to study a couple of of the extra Western-presenting manufacturers that these firms personal. Many of them are family names with logos emblazoned on bins that you just go on the cabinets each time you buy groceries. Some of them have lengthy histories as impartial companies that have been established a long time earlier than they have been bought. In reality, it is pretty doubtless that you have already got a number of tech devices and home equipment from South Korean company-owned manufacturers in your house with out even realizing it.

Anyone who has spent any period of time within the tech sphere will know that the South Korean firm Samsung is among the largest names in the marketplace. The firm makes smartphones, tablets, TVs, media gamers, laptop {hardware}, residence home equipment, and extra. But you may not know that there are a number of audio brands under the corporation’s umbrella that do not use the Samsung identify. Harman Kardon is a Samsung-owned American audio model that’s broadly recognized for manufacturing premium residence, automobile, and Bluetooth audio system. 

The firm was based in 1953 by Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. It instantly made its mark with its first product, the Harman Kardon Festival D1000, which was the globe’s first AM/FM compact Hi-Fi receiver. This model has continued to evolve and innovate within the years since and stays a outstanding identify throughout the audio trade. In reality, it’s incessantly ranked as one of the best major Bluetooth brands in the marketplace. Speakers just like the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 9, Aura Studio 5, and SoundSticks 5 are among the many extra extremely rated gadgets of their respective lessons.

Harman Kardon’s guardian firm, Harman International, was bought by Samsung in 2017 in an enormous $8 billion acquisition. According to Oh-Hyun Kwon, vice chairman and chief government officer of Samsung Electronics, this was largely executed in order that Samsung might acquire an even bigger foothold within the automotive trade. It is now a completely owned subsidiary of the South Korean firm. This has had a significant affect on Harman Kardon, as the corporate now has entry to a a lot wider scope of assets. Samsung and Harman International now profit from shared assets and know-how throughout their quite a few manufacturers.

Of course, Harman Kardon is not the one audio model that is part of Harman International. JBL is one other subsidiary that acquired snatched up when Samsung purchased the company. You’ve doubtless heard of JBL, as it’s one other outstanding American audio firm that focuses on a variety of audio system, headphones, earbuds, and sound programs. The company got its name from its founder, James Bullough Lansing, when he first launched the corporate in Los Angeles, California, again in 1946. It made its identify with audio system that have been rigorously engineered to produce clear, exact audio. It remained an impartial firm till it was acquired by Harman International in 1969, which was then purchased by Samsung in 2017. While the corporate’s preliminary focus was on skilled audio gear, it shifted to client merchandise as early because the Fifties, earlier than wi-fi Bluetooth audio grew to become an more and more essential a part of its lineup within the early 2000s. 

The firm is now maybe finest recognized for its pill-shaped Bluetooth audio system, such because the JBL Charge 6 and the Flip 5, although it has additionally branched out into bigger moveable audio system, such because the PartyBox Encore Essential 2, the PartyBox 110, and the PartyBox Stage 320, that are all designed for big, outside gatherings reminiscent of events, dwell music, and sporting occasions. In phrases of private audio, the JBL Vibe Beam 2 Noise Canceling Earbuds and Tune 780NC Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones are additionally widespread decisions. JBL has benefited from all the similar collective belongings as Harman Kardon underneath Samsung’s possession, sharing tech, assets, and distribution.

The third and closing Samsung-owned model that we’ll point out on this listing is SmartThings. This is not one other Harman model, nonetheless. SmartThings was initially based by Alex Hawkinson in Colorado again in 2012. He reportedly got here up with the concept to make a “good residence” from a large assortment of networked gadgets after an influence outage brought on intensive injury to his household residence. He shaped an organization and initiated a Kickstarter marketing campaign to finance his concepts, garnering over $1.2 million from 5,700 backers. The firm noticed an explosion in recognition after this and launched its first assortment of economic merchandise at CES two years later. It was at this level in 2014 that SmartThings was acquired by Samsung and was set as much as function as an impartial firm underneath the umbrella of Samsung’s Open Innovation Center Group. The group relocated to a brand new headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and retained its artistic autonomy, all whereas having access to Samsung’s international development projects.

The firm has launched dozens of good merchandise through the years, and there are nonetheless a handful of them, just like the 3rd Gen SmartThings Hub and the SmartThings Indoor Security Camera, that yow will discover floating round on the web. That not seems to be the corporate’s main focus, nonetheless. These days, SmartThings leans extra towards the software program facet of issues, with a single app accessible on Android or iOS that’s designed to community gadgets from a number of accomplice manufacturers. You can get a wise residence hub from Aeotec, lighting from Philips, plugs from Eve, a Ring doorbell, and a Google Nest Thermostat, and join all of them by the SmartThings app.

You might not have heard of the following model until you’re fairly deeply invested within the automotive globe. ZKW Group is an automotive components provider based mostly in Austria that’s owned by one other prime South Korean tech conglomerate: LG. It focuses on designing and manufacturing premium lighting and digital parts. It at the moment serves a number of main automotive producers, together with Ford, GM, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, and over a dozen others. 

ZKW’s main specialty is making high-tech headlights which are designed to extend security by functioning in coordination with fashionable driver intelligence programs. The firm additionally has plans to make massive strides in these applied sciences. “In the longer term, we are going to drive innovation in miniature lasers, micro-electromechanical programs (MEMS), natural light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and particular LED configurations,” ZKW says on its web site. “The intention is to develop and manufacture modern digital options for headlights in an effort to present the very best assist for the ZKW Group as a system producer of premium lighting programs.”

The firm was initially based by a person named Karl Zizala in Vienna in 1938 as a steel fabricator for vans and bikes, and it did not really shift its focus to lighting and electronics till the late ’80s and early ’90s following the corporate’s buy by the Mommert household in 1982. It continued underneath this construction till April 2018, when your complete firm was acquired by LG (70% LG Electronics and 30% LG Corporation). Following this, LG integrated its personal rear mild manufacturing division into the ZKW Group, combining its automotive lighting packages right into a single commerce and branding construction.

Boston Dynamics has been one of many largest names in robotics for many years. The firm has made a number of technological leaps through the years which have garnered loads of media consideration. Some of essentially the most noteworthy fashions embody Spot, the four-legged robotic that was designed for industrial inspection and security monitoring in hazardous environments; Stretch, a cell robotic arm designed for warehouse field dealing with and truck loading and unloading operations; and Atlas, the AI-powered strolling humanoid robotic that’s designed to deal with heavy-duty industrial lifting and manufacturing facility work.

Boston Dynamics was based in Massachusetts by Marc Raibert and a bunch of different engineers as a by-product from the robotics program at MIT in 1992. It remained impartial till Google acquired it in 2013. SoftBank later bought the corporate from Alphabet in 2017 earlier than Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% controlling interest in a deal completed in 2021 that valued Boston Dynamics at $1.1 billion.

Hyundai is most properly often called a South Korean automotive firm, but it surely has been branching out into tech increasingly more through the years. In addition to creating new hybrid and EV tech, autonomous driving, and hydrogen gas cell automotive know-how, the corporate established its personal Robotics Lab division in 2019, simply earlier than it acquired Boston Dynamics as an extra asset placement within the discipline of robotics. Hyundai Motor Group has introduced that it’s at the moment engaged on wearable robots just like the CEX (Chairless Exoskeleton) and VEX (Vest Exoskeleton), mobility programs just like the MobED and PnD (Plug & Drive), and repair fashions just like the DAL-e AI-powered customer support robotic, DAL-e Delivery autonomous supply robotic, and the Automatic Charging Robot (ACR). It is unclear, nonetheless, if this work is being carried out by Boston Dynamics, by Hyundai’s personal lab, or by a collaboration between the 2.