Samsung at CeBIT 2008

Electronics giant sponsors 'Samsung European Championship'a big thriller for gamers

"CeBIT 2008"opened its annual trade fair on digital equipment and telecommunications with a bang on March 6 and closed on March 9.
This year's annual event was a little different from the past. Samsung Electronics staged the World Cyber Games at the 22nd Hall that the Korean electronics maker occupied to display its IT products and host the 2008 Samsung European Championship games from March 6.
The hall with some 7,933 square meters space virtually was packed with game players from all over Europe. Samsung officials estimated that about 150,000 visitors watched the game at the hall during the 4-day event, yelling and shouting at the games went on.
Samsung launched the WGC in 2000 to popularize the e-sports as a world wide cultural festivity. The event is also called 'game Olympics'by champion gamers from many countries around the world as they compete for their skills.
Every year the event is held in three major cities in the three large regions. In March, the championship took place in Hanover at the CeBIT 2008. In June, 'American Championship'will be held followed by 'Asian Championship'in August. In November, 'WGC Grand Final'will be held in Germany.
During the European championship, some 300 gamers from all over Europe participated in the event, which was divided into 8 different competitive kinds of games; 'counter strike 1.6' 'War Craft3?FIFA '08'all together five games. It had two console games and one mobile game and a cash prize of 100 million won was given to the winner.
Spectators in the games would have the pleasure of viewing the new games and IT products and playing them to see how they work.
Last year's Samsung European Championship attracted some 150,000 spectators as it did this year at Hanover, according to the International Cyber Marketing, an agency in charge of marketing for the cyber games. For CeBIT organizers the Samsung Championship was an important event for their success. As many young spectators would be attracted to the event, global companies stepped up their marketing campaigns and every year major global companies become sponsors of the event. For this year, sponsors would include Microsoft, Phillilps, and Samsung.
Representative Kim Hyung-sop of ICM said e-sports has grown rapidly in the past four to five years as the IT industry's future industrial model, which could lead to World Cup and Olympics in the IT industry as a new method of marketing.
In the meantime, Samsung Electronics booth attracted some 350 IT experts and people related with retail sales of IT products in Europe and CIS. They wanted to have a look at 28 kinds of new printers put on display by the company including 'CLP 310'and A4 digital printer with the model No.6555.8380ND.
The company's printing business dep't put together the show for the first time abroad to strengthen its activities under the company's strategy to focus its attention on its six futuristic growth engines that included the printer business. The value of annual printer business amounts to $150 billion, which is bigger than memory chip market at $120 billion.
Managing Director Lee Jang-jae of the company said the global printer market is hard to crack due to its needs for high-level technologies but once you have entered you can make a lot of profit for a long time, making it very attractive.
He continued that Samsung has enough technologies, communication and machinery, making itself a competitive one in the market. When the company launched the department, it had some 6,000 people, but its been down to 1,200. In the coming years, the department plans to increase the number of personnel and expand R&D activity and investment in facilities to achieve its goal of becoming the top company in the color printer industry by 2010.
There is a lot of gap between Samsung and Hewlett Packer, the No.1 company in the printer market, but Samsung has a good chance to catch up with the U.S. company if it focus on the B2B market, which is a customer centered market, the managing director said with confidence. nw

Samsung Electronics latest model of handset on display at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, March 6-9.