Samsung Rising

An explosive expose of one of the biggest and most secretive companies in the world, Samsung, as the Korean juggernaut battles Apple and Sony to dominate the world of technology.

Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year

'Shines an incisive and entertaining light into the secretive world of the South Korean technology giant shaping our digital lives in ways we probably can't imagine' -- Brad Stone

Can the Asian giant beat Apple?

Based on years of reporting on Samsung for the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Time from his base in South Korea, and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers the first deep look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody knows.

How has this happened? Forty years ago, Samsung was a rickety Korean agricultural conglomerate that produced sugar, paper, and fertiliser. But with the rise of the PC revolution, Chairman Lee Byung-chul came up with an incredibly risky multi-million dollar plan to make Samsung a major supplier of computer chips. Lee had been wowed by a young Steve Jobs who sat down with the chairman to offer his advice, and Lee quickly became obsessed with creating a tech empire.

Today, Samsung employs over 350,000 people - over four times as many as Apple - and their revenues have grown 40 times their 1987 level. Samsung alone now makes up more than 20% of South Korea's exports and sells more smartphones than any other company in the world. Furthermore, they don't just make their own phones, but are also one of Apple's chief suppliers on technology critical to the iPhone. Yet their disastrous recall of the Galaxy Note 7, with numerous reports of phones spontaneously bursting into flames, reveals the dangers of the company's headlong attempt to overtake Apple at any cost.

A sweeping, insider account of the Korean company's ongoing war against the likes of Google and Apple, Samsung Rising shows how a determined and fearless Asian competitor is poised to take on the giants of the tech world.