Samsung Electronics Co. will confront wider economic uncertainties abroad this year, the company CEO said Friday, vowing to tap deeper into new businesses to keep its growth engine alive.
“We should make full-fledged efforts to gain sustainable competitiveness by introducing smart health, smart home and the Internet of Things (IoT) businesses,” Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun said in his New Year’s remarks to company employees.
“We should generate new opportunities and maintain growth in the business-to-business sectors as well,” Kwon added.
The tech firm’s traditional profit-generating business continued to weaken throughout 2014, making it urgent for the world’s No. 1 maker of smartphones to find other sources of revenue.
Last year, Samsung’s mainstay smartphone business lost ground around the globe due mainly to the rise of Chinese players armed with low-end models with higher price competitiveness.
Samsung saw its world market share in smartphones fall 7.7 percentage points on-year in the third quarter of 2014 at 24.4 percent, data compiled by market tracker Gartner Inc. earlier showed.
Major Chinese brands, on the other hand, had expanded their presence in the global market, with Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo taking up 15.5 percent of the market in the third quarter, up 4.1 percentage points on-year.
Kwon said the company must also make efforts to bolster its competency in contents and services that can add to the value of hardware devices.
Samsung initiated a restructuring plan last month that added more responsibilities to the mobile arm while downsizing its overall structure, apparently in a move to focus its resources on its mainstay businesses.
“Our traditional key business divisions must bolster their competitiveness (in 2015) and take the lead not only in the advanced markets but also in emerging countries,” Kwon said.
The company is expected to release its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2014 next week. (Yonhap)
