Radios, Walkmans, and PlayStation – Explore the History of Sony Since 1946

The story of Sony begins when Japanese products were often viewed as cheap and low-quality. Co-founders Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita changed this view for good by starting Sony Corporation — Sony became known for many world firsts, including being the first Japanese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its groundbreaking products, like the Sony Walkman and the PlayStation, have impacted the entertainment industry well beyond Japan. Sony was also among the few large Japanese companies to endure the severe recession of the early ’90s and the subsequent “lost decades.”

Our experts at Business2Community have compiled the key dates and products in the history of Sony, all the way from its first transistor radio to its industry-leading products.

Who Owns Sony?

Sony belongs to a mix of institutional and mutual fund holders. Its major shareholders include The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd (19%), Citibank as Depositary Bank for Depositary Receipt Holders (9.5%), and Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd (7.2%).

As of March 2023, over 50% of Sony’s shares were held by foreign institutions and individuals, around 37% by Japanese financial institutions and individuals, and around 2% by other Japanese corporations and securities firms.

Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita established Sony in 1946. They had been acquainted since World War II, as they both participated in Wartime Research Committee meetings. After the war, the two friends came together to start Sony in Tokyo, Japan. In its initial phase, Sony was known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation), or Totsuko for short.

During their visits to the United States in the 50s, the Sony executives realized that Americans had a hard time pronouncing Totsuko. Since they aimed to be an international company and appeal to other countries beyond the Japanese market, they changed the company name to Sony in 1958.

The word Sony came from the blend of two words: “sonus”, the Latin word for sound, and “sonny”, meaning little son. The idea behind it was to represent a group of young people who had countless innovative ideas. Plus, Sony was easy to read and pronounce in any language, making the company look free, open-minded, and energetic.

The Sony Corporation went public in August 1955 and was listethd on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 1958. In 1960, Sony got government approval to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in New York and transferred $500,000 to set up the Sony Corporation of America. It listed its stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1970, becoming the first Japanese company on the platform.

Who is the Sony CEO?

Kenichiro Yoshida has been the CEO of Sony since 2018. Between 1946 and 1989, the two Sony co-founders served as chief executive officers. After 1989, Norio Ohga, Nobuyuki Idei, Howard Stringer, Kazuo Hirai, and Kenichiro Yoshida became the next CEOs, respectively.

How Much is Sony Worth?

As of January 2024, Sony’s market cap was $120.75 billion. Its peak was in 2021 when it hit $155.91 billion. In 2008 and 2011, it experienced a decrease of over 50%. To recover, the company announced that it would restructure its headquarters and business operations in 2012.

Its restructuring efforts included the One Sony strategy, led by then-CEO Kazuo Hirai, which meant:

• Reducing headcount by 20%
• Prioritizing digital imaging, gaming, and mobile as Sony’s three core businesses

The company passed the $100 billion market cap milestone in 2020.

In the 2022 financial year, Sony reported a net income of nearly $7 billion. The company experienced its biggest net loss in 2011 for several reasons, including its unprofitable TV business, the earthquake in Japan, and the unfavorable exchange rates.

Growth and Development of Sony

Sony’s products have come a long way from its first rice cooker to record-breaking PlayStation game consoles.

As of 2024, gaming is Sony’s largest business segment. Besides developing the PlayStation, Sony has also invested in gaming companies in diverse areas, including gaming headphones and video deep learning. Besides gaming, the company is also known for electronics, photography, semiconductors, financial services, and music, which make up for its main products.

We’ve broken down the history of Sony into periods to delve deeper into its products and leadership changes.

1946-1957: Early Years of Sony

Before reconnecting with Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics company called Tokyo Tsushin Kenkyujo (Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute) in 1946. It was post-war, and Japanese people wanted to be up-to-date with the world’s news, so the company had a lot of demand for fixing radios. When Akio Morita came to Tokyo to join his friend, the company built its first product: an electric rice cooker, which turned out to be a failure.

Soon after, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita started Sony; then named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). It was also known by its acronym, Totsuko. Operating in post-war Japan, Totsuko started as a small company, with just 190,000 yen and around 20 employees. According to its founder Masaru Ibuka, the company’s purpose was to:

… establish an ideal factory that stresses a spirit of freedom and open-mindedness that will, through technology, contribute to Japanese culture.

One of the first products of Totsuko was a G-type tape recorder, completed in 1950. These tape recorders sold very well in Japan’s Kyushu area, due to an increase in coal mining. However, when the coal mining market cooled off, the demand for tape recorders decreased. This was when the co-founders decided to expand the company to other markets, as it was risky to depend on a single area or country.

After reading about the invention of the transistor at Bell Laboratories in the United States, Masaru Ibuka visited the country in 1952. Three years later, the company built the TR-55, Japan’s first transistor radio. In 1957, it developed TR-63, the world’s smallest transistor radio at the time. Its next product, the TR-610, became popular in Europe and the US, selling 500,000 units worldwide.

1958-1964: Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation Becomes Sony Corporation

In 1958, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) became Sony Corporation.

Sony already had a deal with the American company Agrod to distribute its products. At that time, most Japanese companies sold products in the US under an American brand name. Apart from Nikon and Canon cameras, Japanese products were seen as low-quality and cheap. However, Sony wanted to use its own brand name because it trusted its products. This was a big step for the Sony brand.

In 1960, Sony launched the Sony Corporation of America to lead the company’s marketing activities in the USA. Its purpose was to “do business with Americans like an American company,” becoming the first Japanese company to attempt this. The same year, Sony introduced the world’s first portable transistor TV.

1965-1979: Sony Advances in Audio and Video, Launching Color Television and Walkman

In 1965, Sony was contracted by the world’s leading computer company, IBM. It also made significant advancements in consumer electronics. Its 1965 product, the CV-2000, became the world’s first video cassette recorder for home use.

Sony’s first Trinitron color TV, launched in 1968, became a part of Japanese households in less than a decade. By 1975, over 90% of Japanese households had a color TV.

In 1979, Sony launched the first-generation Sony Walkman including lightweight headphones. The company marketed the Walkman in strategic ways, showing people listening to music while skating or walking outside. Below is a Sony Walkman commercial launched in 1981:

The Sony Walkman went on sale in July, and its initial batch of 30,000 units was sold by the end of August. At the time, the average best-selling tape recorder sold 15,000 units per month. This was only the beginning of the Walkman’s success — ten years after the first model’s launch, the company had manufactured 50 million Walkman units. And by 1995, less than twenty years after the initial launch, it produced 150 million Walkmans, making Sony a market leader.

Walkman became a brand in no time, with worldwide dictionaries like Le Petit Larousse and Oxford English Dictionary including it in their new editions.

1980-1990: Sony Enters the Computer and Entertainment Industries

Norio Ohga became Sony’s president in 1982 and CEO in 1989. He led important Sony initiatives, including the CD player, PlayStation, the $2 billion CBS Inc. takeover, and the $3.4 billion Columbia Pictures Entertainment takeover.

Sony entered the computer industry in 1982, when it launched its first 8-bit personal computer. It also announced the CDP-101, the first CD player for consumer use. On CDP-101’s second anniversary, Sony introduced D-50, a portable CD player.

By 1986, four years after its launch, the CD became the principal audio medium. Sony had CD software plants in Japan, the USA, and Austria, and a CD player plant in France, becoming one of the first companies to provide CD hardware and software worldwide. This was thanks to Norio Ohga’s efforts convincing the CBS executives, as he said “Even if we have the hardware, it’s useless without the software.”

During this decade, Sony made major investments in the entertaiinnment industry. It acquired CBS Records Inc. in 1988, and Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1989. To purchase Columbia, Sony paid $3.4 billion in cash, making it the largest US acquisition to date by a Japanese company.

Sony renamed CBS and Columbia later on, as Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.

1990-2000: Sony Builds New Gaming, Computing, and Recording Products

In the early 1990s, Sony was affected by the economic problems in Japan and Europe, suffering from a loss of 8.8 billion yen ($75.8 million) in the last quarter of 1993. Both Sony co-founders started having health problems during this decade and died in 1997 and 1999.

Despite all the bad news, Sony was able to survive the horrible recession that most of its Japanese peers could not. One of the most important drivers of Sony’s success in the ’90s came in 1994 when it developed the PlayStation by Sony Computer Entertainment. The first PlayStation’s successor, PlayStation 2 was released in 2000. With both products, Sony captured over 50% of the game console market by 2003, generating $3.3 billion in revenue.

In 1995, Nobuyuki Idei became Sony’s CEO, who directed the launch of cyber-shot digital cameras (1996), the VAIO line of personal computers (1997), and “AIBO” the robot dog (1999).

Idei recognized the impact of the internet on business early on and advocated for Sony to adapt to the changes. He once said:

The internet will have the same effect on the business world that a meteorite once had on the dinosaurs.

However, his warnings were reportedly overlooked within the company.

During Idei’s time as CEO, Sony’s music businesses struggled to compete with the Apple iPod. With the launch of the iPod, Apple experienced a major success and stood out with its software as well as its hardware. According to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, this was where Apple had an advantage compared to companies like Sony.

“These really great Japanese consumer electronics companies who owned and invented the portable music market couldn’t do the appropriate software, whereas the iPod is really just software,” he said in a 2007 interview.

2000-2010: Sony Continues to Diversify

In 2001, Sony established a joint venture with Ericsson, launching their mobile phone businesses worldwide.

Sony continued diversifying, developing the Blu-ray Disc Recorder in 2003. Blu-ray’s main competition was Toshiba’s HD DVD. To beat its competitor, Sony ran a strategic marketing campaign.

The third PlayStation, launched in 2006 ad came with a pre-installed Blu-ray player, meaning that by selling the PlayStation 3, Sony also sold Blu-ray players. Besides Sony Pictures Entertainment, big Hollywood names like Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros also supported Blu-ray.

Howard Stringer became Sony’s first non-Japanese CEO in 2005. He announced plans to focus on the next-generation computer chip, which would power new Sony products, including the upcoming PlayStation game consoles. PlayStation had a portable version by 2005, as Sony released PlayStation Portable (PSP). The same year, Sony launched the Sony Bravia widescreen LCD TV series.

This decade held major improvements for Sony’s digital camera business. In 2003, the company launched the world’s first consumer-use CCD digital still camera. Then, in 2006, it started the Sony Alpha series, with its first DSLR camera with an Alpha Mount lens mount system supporting multiple lenses. The Sony Alpha series continued producing mirrorless cameras in addition to DSLRs.

Sony accomplished another world-first in 2006, introducing contactless IC card technology, “FeliCa”, made from vegetable-based plastic. Since then, the “FeliCa” technology has been used in railway and bus services in Japan, etickets, emoney services, and electronic applications.

2010-2015: Sony Focuses on Electronics

The 2010s weren’t easy for Sony. The company’s stock fell by 54% in 2011, affected by the Japanese economy, twin crises, and the Great East Japan Earthquake. It also had strong competitors, Apple and Samsung.

Kazuo Hirai took over as the new CEO in 2012. He announced that he would focus on the company’s electronics businesses, including digital imaging, mobiles, and gaming. This meant scaling back to revive Sony. The company stopped selling its VAIO PCs and split out its TV and Walkman divisions. It also purchased Toshiba’s image sensor business, aiming to strengthen its digital imaging segment.

On the product front, in 2012, Sony bought Ericsson’s 50% stake in their joint venture and renamed the company Sony Mobile Communications. Under the new company name, Sony began launching its first smartphone line, the Xperia series. The next year, it took PlayStation 4 to market, the second best-selling game console of the company after the PlayStation 2.

After Sony sold its corporate headquarters in Tokyo and New York City in 2013, it reported its first profit in five years. In 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment experienced a major cyber-attack, where hackers stole the personal information of Sony employees and actors, and pirated five Sony films. Sony agreed to pay up to $8 million to its employees to reimburse them.

2015-2020: Sony Starts Sony AI and Launches the Latest PlayStation

In 2018, Kenichiro Yoshida became Sony’s CEO. He agreed with his predecessor, Kazuo Hirai, that there was a sense of crisis on how Sony could strengthen its position in the global market. Especially with the rise of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, Sony was left behind its competitors.

Sony invested in AI by starting Sony AI in 2020, focusing on AI in entertainment. The same year, Sony Interactive Entertainment launched the PlayStation 5, with the slogan “Play Has No Limits”. According to Reuters, the game console sold out on its first day in the Japanese market.

In 2022, Sony held 13% of the video game market worldwide, overranking Microsoft (8%) and Nintendo (7%). PlayStation has played a big role in Sony’s dominance. Over the years, the PlayStation game consoles have earned Sony billions in revenue, selling hundreds of millions of units every year.

Sony Pictures Entertainment had profitable years in 2017 and 2018, having launched Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Besides all the Spider-Man movies, the company has also produced high-grossing films like Men in Black (1997), Skyfall (2012), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), and more.

Below is a graph showing the box-office revenue of Sony in the United States and Canada between 2000 and 2023:

2020-Present: Gaming Becomes Sony’s Largest Business Segment

Sony announced an organizational structure change in 2020, changing its corporate name from Sony Corporation to Sony Group Corporation. According to CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, the name change reflected Sony’s diverse portfolio and evolution in the business.

In 2022, games and networks were Sony’s largest business segment, generating the company $25.96 billion. The second largest segment was electronics, with $17.64 billion. In 2012, gaming was only Sony’s sixth-largest business segment. During these past ten years, Sony also grew its music and pictures segments, increasing its market share in both industries.

In 2023, Sony had the second-largest market share in camera manufacturing with 26% of the market, ranking behind Canon (46.5%) and ahead of Nikon (11.7%). Ever since it entered the DSLR camera market in 2006 with Sony Alpha cameras, it developed its products, producing the Sony Alpha 9 III in 2023, the world’s first full-frame global shutter image sensor.

Known as one of the big three music companies, Sony Music Entertainment is an industry leader along with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The company generated $10.35 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, increasing its revenue from the previous year’s $9.15 billion. Artists who have signed to Sony include Mariah Carey, Prince, Travis Scott, and more.

In 2019, Sony chose the Japanese word “Kando”, or emotion, to define its company purpose. In Sony’s 2023 corporate strategy meeting, CEO Kenichiro Yoshida highlighted that Sony aimed to:

… fill the world with emotion (or Kando) through the power of creativity and technology.

What Does Sony Own?

Sony Group Corporation has subsidiaries and affiliates in electronics, gaming, entertainment, music, and more. Here is a list of notable Sony companies that operate under Sony Group Corporation.

The Japanese company has also acquired other companies relevant to its products and services. Between 2020 and 2023, Sony’s acquisitions focused particularly on the gaming industry.

History of the Sony Logo

Between 1946 and 1955, Sony’s logo was a “T” standing for Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). In 1955, the company adopted a new logo, consisting of the word “Sony” placed in a square box.

In 1957, the logo changed, adopting a round, serif font. Four years later, Sony was about to become the first Japanese company to have its logo on a neon sign in Hong Kong. To readapt the logo, Sony co-founder Akio Morita asked designer Yasuo Kuroki to come up with an idea. His design became Sony’s 1961 logo, and was displayed in Hong Kong’s upscale neighborhoods.

Since 1961, the logo has been refined a few times, until Sony decided on its current logo in 1973. The company attempted to change its logo in 1981 to commemorate its 35th anniversary. People from all over the world submitted ideas, but co-founder Masaru Ibuka decided that none were better than its current logo.

The Future of Sony

Having made significant investments in gaming and content IP, Sony aims to see growth in various business segments in the future. Here are the announcements it made related to each segment in its 2023 Corporate Report:

• Game and network: Sony’s gaming department will focus on PlayStation, especially the newest addition. To improve the game experience on both PlayStation and personal computers, Sony will work with Bungie, a gaming company acquired by Sony in 2022.
• Music: Sony plans on increasing its market share in streaming and making profits thanks to the use of music in emerging markets such as social media.
• Pictures: Over the past five years, Sony has invested over 1 trillion yen (over $6 billion) in content IP, aiming to maximize its IP value for movies. It aims to continue focusing on theatrical releases instead of online streaming.
• Entertainment, technology & services: Sony wants to use technology to empower creators, such as efficient cloud-based content production services. In 2024, it announced a partnership with Siemens about a spatial content creation system using head-mounted display and virtual reality.
• Imaging & sensing solutions: Sony is an industry leader in image sensors, and it aims to keep its position in the future.
• Financial services: Sony’s financial services department will go through a rebranding process, focus on digital transformation, and consider large investments for medium and long-term growth.

FAQs