South Korea’s Samsung is one of the largest electronics and component manufacturers in the world—so the company’s announcement that it has stopped selling consumer electronics like flat panel televisions in Japan comes as something of a surprise. But according to Samsung, it just can’t make enough money in Japan to justify its presence in the market. Samsung stopped selling goods in retail outlets in August, and has now stopped online sales of its consumer goods in Japan as well.
According to Samsung spokesperson Lee Eun-hee, "We found direct sales to individual consumers are less profitable than business-to-business sales."
