COBY was founded by Mr. Young Dong Lee in 1991, with the corporate objective of delivering value, quality, and innovation in consumer electronics products to all consumers at all levels of income.

In the early 1990's, COBY's business consisted largely of stereo headphones, cassette players, and audio & video accessories. These main product categories evolved to CD players and portable stereo systems in the late 1990's, but remained focused on the audio category due to the barriers that prevented entry into a video market then dominated by few large manufacturers.