I am inside Samsung’s global headquarters
here in South Korea, where it’s lunchtime.
I’m getting an exclusive
look inside Samsung,
exploring three of its sprawling
campuses around the city of Seoul.
Samsung is the world’s most popular smartphone
maker, ahead of Huawei and Apple.
But its smartphone business is only
one part of the Samsung operation,
which includes shipping
and even construction.
Samsung also makes TVs, washers, dryers, air
conditioners, laptops, printers, fax machines,
door locks and it also has a large
business-to-business unit.
Samsung employs over
320,000 people globally.
And about 70% of them are
outside of South Korea.
It’s the world’s 12th largest company by revenue and
the world’s second largest technology company.
Behind me is an actual bus depot
for just Samsung employees.
And with so many campuses
located around South Korea,
this tour feels like I’m
exploring an entire city.
Every building you see behind me
is part of Samsung right now.
And they also have
anything you can imagine.
This campus has its
own Dunkin' Donuts.
It even has its own
fire stations too.
My first stop is
Samsung Digital City.
At 346 acres, that makes it over three
times the size of the Vatican City.
It’s home to its consumer
electronics business
that includes everything from
phones to TVs and microwaves.
There’s even a dedicated area within Digital City
where Samsung is testing out its 5G technology.
In this part of the campus Samsung is testing its
5G network equipment through real life use cases.
So I see cameras on buildings,
cameras over traffic lights.
This is some of the Samsung 5G network
equipment that’s currently being deployed.
This one for instance is
already being used in the U.S.
Samsung has signed 5G deals with the
likes of AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.
Closer to home, Samsung is already working
with all the major telco providers to deploy
its 5G network equipment, making South
Korea one of the first countries to do so.
As I roam through Samsung’s
campus, something stands out.
Security is tight here.
They actually have metal detectors for when you
leave the building and that’s for security reasons.
That’s to ensure that no company
property leaves the premises.
Next, I head to C-Lab, or
Samsung’s Creative Lab.
It’s an in-house incubation program that
lets employees pitch and work on their ideas
without having to worry
about their day jobs.
A number of products have come out of C-Lab,
including an on-demand 3D printer, a smart belt.
Successful projects are either absorbed
in-house, or spun off into external startups,
with Samsung retaining a
small stake in the companies.
Every campus has its own
gym facility, it’s quite huge,
I’m told that it really peaks and
gets crowded around 6pm.
This even has its own running track,
there’s a fast lane and there's a slow lane,
which goes around the
entire perimeter of the gym.
What’s really interesting is you
can even borrow gym clothes,
so you don’t even need to
bring your own clothes.
It’s almost lunchtime, so I'm going to take
a break from this tour and have some lunch.
This is today’s lunch menu behind
me. I see a lot of different cuisines.
I think I’ve found the most popular
station here in the cafeteria.
I’m going to try some Korean
noodles over at this station here.
Sorry.
This looks like a lot of food but they have
a system where if you choose a brown tray,
that means you want more food, if you choose
a green tray, that means you want less food.
So I didn’t know, but I’m secretly
happy I chose this tray.
Lunch is completely free here on campus,
there’s no cash registers or anything.
And the cafeterias are open
for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
There’s a rice station.
Instead of your usual condiments like
ketchup and mustard, you've got...
Kimchi.
That is a lot of kimchi.
I just noticed that a lot of the
columns have letters on them
so you can easily find your
friends and sit with them.
Okay, see, we don’t need
an app for everything.
If you have a big deadline and you
can’t enjoy a sit down lunch,
well, this is the takeout section
where you just grab and go.
As you leave the cafeteria, there’s this
hallway where you can have a glass of water
and freshen up before
you go back to work.
I guess I should
freshen up as well.
After lunch, I take a walk in what’s
referred to as, Central Park.
Right now, it's still around lunchtime
so you have a lot of employees
taking a stroll and
just hanging out.
There's a lot of different
trees, colours.
There's random classical music
playing in certain parts of the park.
This campus is also home to Samsung Innovation
Museum, which is open to the public.
Here, you’ll find not just the evolution of Samsung’s
products but a history of technology in general.
Next, I head to another campus
called Samsung Nano City.
It’s home to Samsung’s
semiconductor division.
This campus alone is home to 40,000
employees and has 12 cafeterias.
This building behind me is where
semiconductor chips are made by Samsung,
things that go into consumer
electronics like your smartphone.
Last year, Samsung became the world’s
largest chipmaker by revenue.
According to reports, for every
$1,000 iPhone X that Apple sells,
Samsung makes $110
through its chips in the phone.
These are the buildings of Samsung's Research
and Development Center for its microchips.
There's 14,000 employees working in these
three buildings but because it's so secretive,
well, I don't have any access
beyond this lobby.
I'm ending the tour at
Samsung's R&D campus.
It’s about a 45-minute
drive from Nano City.
Here's where a lot of the
design work is done.
Samsung says about one fifth of its global
workforce is dedicated to research and development.
That’s more than
65,000 people.
To encourage creativity, there's a library
where designers and employees
can come to brainstorm
and find inspiration.
My last stop is at what’s
called Samsung’s Sound Lab.
It has everything from music
equipment to voice booths,
where they record voices of Samsung’s
smartphone virtual assistant, Bixby.
All the sounds are created for things you wouldn’t
even think off, like when you charge your phone,
unplug your phone from the charger,
when you open the refrigerator
or when the refrigerator has been
open for more than a minute long.
It’s a term called Sonic Branding.
They even came up with
the sound of Samsung Pay,
which was meant to mimic the sound of
a credit card being pulled out of a wallet.
And then there’s the sound they created
of a Samsung air conditioner turning off.
And I guess that’s my
cue to wrap up this tour.
Hey guys, it's Uptin.
Thanks for watching!
Check out my tour inside Baidu's campus and Huawei's
campus and see how they compare to Samsung.
While you're at it, subscribe to our
channel, we'll see you next time.
