The Growth and Decline of Korean-style Microwaves in the Early to Mid-1990s: The Cases of Samsung Electronics and GoldStar

Abstract

Background The Korean-style trend was one of the most prominent phenomena in home appliances in the 1990s. The mop vacuum, the kimchi fridge, the boiling washing machine, the pressure cooker microwave, and the ttukbaegi microwave became popular because they were designed to fit into the Korean lifestyle. Among them, Korean-style microwaves were claimed to cook Korean food as their core identity. Korean-style microwaves first appeared in the late 1980s. However, the typical Korean-style microwave oven appeared in 1991 and 1992. After a brief period of popularity, Korean-style microwave ovens were in rapid decline by 1994. This paper aims to shed light on the development and decline of Korean-style microwave ovens in the early to mid-1990s in a historical context. Methods This paper analyzed related literature, advertisement, and daily newspaper articles using the methodology of semiotics and discourse analysis and structured the resulting contents through the method of critical narrative to reach the research purpose. Results