[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics’ European sales proportion of its entire revenue has been on a downward trend in recent years, according to the tech giant’s sustainability report on July 3.

Samsung earned 38.6 trillion won (US$33.6 billion) in 2015, which takes up 19 percent of the firm’s overall revenue, at 200.7 trillion won, in the European region, including countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The proportion was down from 23 percent in 2013 and 21 percent in 2014.

“The market stagnation in Europe is far worse than that in the US, which seems to be the main reason of the decrease,” a market official said.

With its business shrinking in the European region, the number of employees in the region also dropped from 18,362 in 2013 to 15,487 in 2015 while most regions, including Korea and the US, saw the number of employees increase or remain almost the same during the same period.

The number of Samsung employees in the Southeast and Southwest Asian market almost doubled from 79,601 in 2013 to 140,431 in 2015.

The US sales proportion of the tech behemoth’s overall revenue, meanwhile, has reached a record high in 2015 at 34 percent, up from 33 percent in 2014 and 30 percent in 2013.

The company raked in 68.9 trillion won in the US in 2015.

Samsung has lost ground in the Chinese market due mainly to the increasing clout of Chinese electronics and mobile phone makers, including Huawei, OPPO, and Xiaomi.

The 2015 sales generated in the Chinese market accounted for 15 percent, at 31 trillion won, of the Korean tech giant’s overall sales, down from 18 percent in 2013 and 16 percent in 2014.

The revenue of the Asian and African market, excluding China, standing at 41.3 trillion won, took up 22 percent of Samsung’s 2015 sales, up from 20 percent in 2014, and 19 percent in 2013.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com">wone0102@heraldcorp.com)