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Which came first, McDonald's or Samsung?

Which came first, McDonald's or Samsung?
Samsung
1938 — 2 years before McDonald's

Samsung came first, by 2 years. Lee Byung-chul opened a trading company in Daegu, Korea.

Side by side

McDonald's Samsung
Year 1940 1938
Date 1938-03-01
Category company company
What happened Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino. Lee Byung-chul opened a trading company in Daegu, Korea.

McDonald's

The brothers opened in 1940 as a barbecue drive-in and reinvented it in 1948 with the Speedee Service System — a tiny menu, no waiters, food assembled on a production line. The company itself dates its founding to 15 April 1955, when Ray Kroc opened his franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. Both dates are defensible and the corporate one is not the restaurant one.

Samsung

Samsung began in 1938 as a grocery trading company dealing in dried fish, vegetables and noodles, which it exported to Manchuria. It moved into textiles, insurance and retail before making its first electronic product — a black-and-white television — in 1970. The name means "three stars".

Common questions

Which came first, McDonald's or Samsung?
Samsung, by 2 years — 1938 against 1940.
When did McDonald's start?
1940. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a restaurant in San Bernardino.
When did Samsung start?
1938. Lee Byung-chul opened a trading company in Daegu, Korea.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place
  2. Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked