In 2014, Samsung Electronics introduced music and video streaming services Milk Music and Milk Video in a handful of countries, but in a matter of two years had shut down the services in all of them except for South Korea. (Image: Samsung)
SEOUL, March 8 (Korea Bizwire) — One by one, Samsung Electronics is pulling the plug on its mobile content offerings.
Though the South Korean tech giant leaped into the mobile content and services market to make maximum use of its dominant position as the world’s largest smartphone maker, attempts to dislodge firmly entrenched market incumbents are perceived to have been unsuccessful.
Subscribed users to the “Story Sharing” feature nested in the Galaxy smartphones’ Gallery app were informed they would need to download files they wished to keep, as the feature would be discontinued as of March 27. A service incorporating elements of both social media and text messaging platforms, usage was reportedly very low.
In January, Samsung Electronics terminated an app data backup and retrieval service available through Samsung Cloud.
This particular service also suffered from uninspiring usage rates due to competition from Google’s analogous service.
Over the past twenty-odd years, Samsung affiliates have seen many of their efforts to branch out into the content and services industry result in failure.
In 2014, Samsung Electronics introduced music and video streaming services Milk Music and Milk Video in a handful of countries, but in a matter of two years had shut down the services in all of them except for South Korea. Last October Samsung Electronics’ music services were combined into one entity as Samsung Music.
Going by the name of Readers Hub before being rechristened as Samsung Books, the e-book service was cancelled in 2014. (Image: Samsung Newsroom)
Other initiatives that fell short were an e-book service launched after Samsung Electronics began to sell e-book readers in 2009, and the founding of an organization titled Media Solutions Center devoted to e-books, music and education in 2008.
Going by the name of Readers Hub before being rechristened as Samsung Books, the e-book service was cancelled in 2014. In the same year, the Media Solutions Center was merged with other company departments such as the electronics mobile division.
And in 1995, Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T and Cheil Worldwide established a media business group for the purpose of producing films, animation, music and other content. However, the results proved to be disappointing, and the Asian Financial Crisis at the turn of the century led to the group’s disbandment in 1999.
S.B.W. (sbw266@koreabizwire.com)
