K-beauty, K-food, K-dramas and K-pop, explained
What is a chaebol family in Korea: a founding clan, often in its 3rd generation now, that controls a sprawling business group such as Samsung, Hyundai or LG. The word chaebol (재벌) means roughly ‘wealth clan’, and the model explains why one family name can sit behind your phone, your car battery and the hotel you book in Seoul.
South Korea semiconductor industry explained: it rests on one 1983 bet on memory chips. That year Samsung committed to making DRAM, the working memory inside every computer and phone, and Hyundai founded its own chip arm. Four decades later, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix make most of the world’s memory. If you own a laptop, a smartphone or shares in an AI company, part of what you rely on comes out of fabs south o…