Hacker News Reader

Comment by wging | Hacker News Reader

>perhaps the bigger issue here is this: if Samsung has been using these tactics against HTC, are they also engaged in similar marketing techniques with other rivals?

The even bigger issue is, who else is doing this more intelligently than Samsung?

View on HN

This. I love Samsung hardware, but the company seems critically unable to think big. They have no apparent direction or higher thinking, they just make solidly good devices and throw gobs of money at marketing. It's bizarre - in spite of their devices and a reputation for quality gear, they still act like a cheap Korean knock-off company instead of a market leader.

It's no surprise that when they try to do evil, they do it in a clumsy and public manner.

Samsung are one of the biggest and most diversified companies in the world (did you know they are the world's biggest ship builder? Or that they offer life insurance?). I don't have difficulty imagining a lack of organisation and direction in management when they have so many arms doing so many different things.

>did you know they are the world's biggest ship builder?

Nope... they are not. That would be Hyundai, and the second largest is probably Daewoo. Samsung could be third. (I worked at Daewoo and Samsung shipyards).

Tangential funny: the shipbuilding division is called "Samsung Heavy Industries", usually abbreviated to SHI. Samsung means "Three Stars" in korean. The shipyard tug was called the "Tristar". Due to unfortunate typography, the name on the ship was "SHIT ristar". True story, I have photos.

Haha fair call. I actually misread and it's listed as the 2nd biggest shipbuilder. Still, people tend to be surprised as typically when I think 'Samsung', I imagine TVs, phones and laptops.

Samsung are also involved in building processing, rail and port infrastructure for Australia's Iron Ore region.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-28/samsung-c-t-wins-a-...

Not to forget Samsung Artillery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K9_Thunder

Apparently[1], they are 20% of South Korea economy.

[1]: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/whoa-sam...

Eventually all you have to do is mimic human behavior closely enough and it's untraceable. Sometimes that's expensive, but it's always doable.

It didn't sound to me like this is an automated system. Just humans pretending to be who they're not.

Yep, FTC doesn't like that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Reply on news.ycombinator.com