Samsung seems to be involved in increasingly more rumors recently, but the company is committed to keeping things straight and debunking misleading allegations. On Thursday, June 14, the South Korean tech giant addressed another rumor floating around, alleging it was buying a Facebook-like social networking service to create its own social network. Samsung dismissed such rumors as "groundless."
How It All Started
Rumors that Samsung is looking into its own social network started surfacing on Wednesday, June 13, after the Korea Times published a fishy report citing unnamed sources. According to that report, Samsung was developing "a social networking service it hopes could eventually compete with Facebook." The service would be accessible via various Samsung devices, noted the publication. Samsung did not take long to flat-out deny such allegations, saying such rumors are not true and the company is not jumping into any "Facebook-like" social networking.
"There have been inquiries and a few articles claiming that Samsung Electronics is going to offer a Facebook-like service, being developed under a code-name called 'Samsung Facebook,'" Samsung said in a blog post on Thursday addressing the rumors. "However this is not true and the rumor is groundless."
Family Story as Framework
In its report, the Korea Times pointed to Family Story, a social service focusing on photo sharing, chatting, and schedule reminders. This service has been available since February on Samsung TVs, smartphones and tablets, and the Korea Times alleged it served as a framework for Samsung to build its own social network offering.
In response, Samsung argued that such a notion is quite far-fetched. "It is true that we currently are working on upgrading 'Family Story' as we always thrive to provide consumers with enhanced experiences, but this is far from a 'Samsung Facebook' as some are claiming it to be," explained the company.
In a separate rumor earlier this week, Samsung was also said to be looking into buying struggling mobile maker Nokia, a rumor that left most analysts puzzled. Samsung dismissed those rumors as well, saying it has no plans in buying the Finnish handset maker.
