---
title: "Which came first, McDonald's or Samsung?"
description: "McDonald's vs Samsung: Samsung came first, by 2 years — 1938 against 1940. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/mcdonalds-vs-samsung/
site: "At One Place"
---

# 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.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]