The South Korean media reported that Samsung electronics cuts the R&D expense in order to get through a rough 2016. It is the first time that Samsung cuts R&D investment in 18 years.

Samsung made a great amount investments in research and development sections in the past. Samsung invested the largest amount of money in mobile business in 2015 regardless of its poor sales. It spent $14.1 billion for research and development, ranking second in global semiconductor industry.

It is reported taht Samsung electronics has cut 2,480 headquarter employees this year. It owned 99,382 employees by the end of 2015 which is down to 96,902 now.

Besides job cuts, Samsung closed some research & development centers, such as electronic materials research and development center and information application research and development center which locate in US.

The other offices also carried out the staff reduction plan besides the headquarter office. To improve its financial condition, Samsung cut the R&D costs.

Samsung has been attempting to increase revenue in order to get through financial difficulties. It applied Exynos 7420 processor for Galaxy 5 series to reduce the expense so that it increases the profit of components.

Samsung is exploring in VR industry and it launched Gear VR helmet. What’s more, it established the self-driving car technical apartment. It teams up with SEAT, SAP,BMW and Panasonic.

It also explored the oversea business by oversea mergers and acquisitions. Its oversea subsidiaries increased to 8 in 2015, 6 of them locate in US, 2 of them locate in Asia.

Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge made a hit when they were released lately. They were available in 50 countries last Friday. The statistics showed that their sales in South Korea reached 100,000 units two day ago.