Samsung is 20% of South Korea's economy

[Reeve]

I was listening to an NPR story on Samsung this morning that mentioned that Samsung, of which their electronics segment is only one part, is responsible for 20% of the total GDP of South Korea.

Products: Apparel, chemicals, consumer electronics, electronic components, medical equipment, precision instruments, semiconductors, ships, telecommunications equipment

Services: Advertising, construction, entertainment, financial services, hospitality, information and communications technology services, medical services, retail

So I looked it up, and in 2011, their revenues were $247 Billion USD, while South Korea's GDP was $1.151 Trillion USD, which is actually nearly 21.5%.

My question is how common is it for one company to make up such a large portion of a country's economy? Doesn't that start to make the company a bit of a threat, with undue influence in the country's political and economic climate?

[Deleted]

Undoubtedly they have major political pull with that huge of a portion, which can't be good. Really surprised how big they are nationally.

[Deleted]

Usually it's not one company but a series of companies that have an alliance to stand stronger. It's pretty common, just think oil companies in Texas.

[Brachamul]

The percentage is heavily miscalculated.

Samsung does not solely operate in Korea. Most of its sales are made abroad, and it's highly probable that most of its costs are also abroad. Hence, what you want to be looking at is Samsung's activity in Korea, which is probably still very significant, but nowhere near 20%.

It's frequent in Asia, and especially Korea and Japan, to have absolutely massive conglomerates. Governments encourage this, because even though it can take its tool on fair competition, it is also a great way to become powerful at exporting, which is exactly the case for Samsung.

[Deleted]

Nokia used to be a huge chunk of the Finnish economy as well. It still is significant, but not as big as it was 10 years ago.

---------- Post added 2013-04-01 at 03:32 PM ----------

The percentage is heavily miscalculated.

This is correct.

[Bakis]

I'm far more worried about banks and hedge funds being large since I consider them the #1 threat to our way of life.