Friday, October 7, 2016

Fujifilm: Innovation and Corporate History


Fuji Film Holdings Corporation is a photography and imaging multinational. It's principal activities are the development, production, selling and service of colored photo films, digital cameras, paper, chemical products, screens, printers and many more cool stuff. Their HQ are located in Tokyo, Japan.

Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was founded in

1934 as a result of the split-off of a previous Japanese company, Dainippon Celluloid Company. The first years of Fujifilm were tricky, their products were way to expensive, taking into account that they were not really high quality, and it turned out to be cheaper for the client to import.


Fortunately, they were able to prove their research and improvement in

1936, after they released their first film and also their first motion picture negative film, the last one not so easy to produce.


The company continued researching and expanding until Japan entered WWII in

1939, at this point, all of their services were aimed for the military so the rest of the people had to wait.


The infraestructural damages war produced in two of their factories, led to some improvements in the company, boosting the color research and finally, in

1948, allowing them to produce their first color film.


Fuji film's international market continue expanding and were able to produce in larger quantities (finally in a competitive way with the Western companies) thanks to some licensing agreements with Eastman Kodak, however, their struggle for their not so good quality was still in few terms. In

1952, Fujifilm introduced it's first amateur roll film and in

1958, the Fuji Photo Film do Brasil Ltda. was stablished (obviously in Brazil), demonstrating the company's international intentions. During this decade, also, Fujifilm reached a lot of exports agreements in different continents.


By the 60's, Eastman Kodak was the biggest developer in the market and it's dominance forced the other companies to adjust their systems to the one Kodak used, this included Fujifilm, which saw it's growing slowed. In

1965, Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. was stablished in New York State, from this point, Fujifilm managed it's market in the United States. In

1970, Kodak held almost the whole U.S. market, but Fuji's color films were already faster than Kodak.


By the late 80's, Fujifilm was doing pretty good, with presence in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia principally. Despite the traditional market was indifferent, Fujifilm discovered a new segment of consumers, one that was all about instant photography.

1986, Fujifilm introduced the world's first one-time-use recyclable camera, QuickSnap. Their success was being, nationally and internationally, huge till the point where they become the number one camera producers in

1992.


Fujifilm best years were in the early 90's, when their sales kept breaking records until 1992, in part because of the economic recession in Japan.


Fujifilm also works in the development of medical equipment since the 80's (for example, the Digital diagnostic X-ray imaging system: FCR, in 1983). In

1999, they produced Sapientia, a digital endoscope system, which allows to see live in a screen footage taken from inside the patient.


Finally, in

2013, as a subsidiary in Colombia, established FUJIFILM COLOMBIA S.A.S


References:
  • http://www.fujifilm.com/about/history/corporate_history/
  • http://www.fujifilm.com/about/history/innovation_history/#content7c
  • http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/fuji-photo-film-co-ltd-history/
  • https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm




Nicolas Rincon Diaz

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