Samsung and LG Facing China Challenge

LG Electronics' OLED TVs

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are facing an increasing challenge from Chinese companies in the shrinking global TV market. The South Korean companies are aiming to overwhelm them again by further developing their technologies.

In the first half of this year, the global TV market shipments decreased by 6.6 percent year on year to 92.604 million units. The market sales fell 12.5 percent to US$47.5 billion in that period. The market shares of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the top two in the market, fell while the combined market share of TCL, Hisense and Xiaomi rose from 25.3 percent to 27 percent. TCL’s share was 11.1 percent in the first half, when that of LG Electronics was 13.7 percent.

Those Chinese companies’ LCD TV products are now technologically comparable to those of the South Korean manufacturers. Under the circumstances, the latter are concentrating on OLED TV products and software technologies.

At present, LG Display and Samsung Display are the only two companies in the world that can produce OLED TV panels. It is LG Display that is dominating the global supply and Samsung Display’s OLED TV panels have been supplied to Samsung Electronics and Sony since late last year. Chinese companies are increasing their mobile OLED panel production but are still incapable of producing OLED TV panels usable without problems. On the software side, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are trying to connect their TVs to more devices, platforms and so on beyond the traditional function of broadcast watch.

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