Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Chinese TV makers narrow gap with LG, Samsung
SP Baik, vice president of TV Product Planning division at LG Electronics, speaks during a press conference held on the sidelines of the IFA tech fair in Berlin, Saturday. Courtesy of LG Electronics
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
BERLIN ― Korean TV makers LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics have continually displayed their leadership and dominance with a combined 50-percent share of the global TV market. But their leadership is increasingly threatened by the rapid growth of Chinese TV makers, being pressured to improve their capabilities further, according to an executive of LG's TV business, Saturday.
“It is not long before Chinese TV makers come after Korean companies. There is only a gap of about two or three years,” SP Baik, vice president of the TV Product Planning division at LG Electronics, said in a press conference held on the sidelines of the IFA tech fair.
“The combined market share of Samsung and LG in the global TV market is about 50 percent. By companies, Chinese maker TCL is now very close to the Korean makers. Though LG has the second-largest share, I think we have to be humble because I can imagine how we looked 10 years ago when I see Chinese makers like TCL or Hisense,” the head of TV Product Planning for LG Electronics said.
“TCL has no OLED TVs like us. But as we have the vertical structure of sourcing TV panels from LG Display, the Chinese company also has CSOT, which has great abilities in producing LCD panels. I estimate that the price and competitiveness of TCL LCD TVs will enormously increase, which could be a big threat to us,” he added.
While the technological gap between Korean companies and Chinese companies is expected to narrow soon, Baik said LG is increasingly focused on offering a more tailored user experience for its customers.
“Our strategy is to offer consumers a much-improved user experience than that of Chinese TV makers. I think the competition in the difference in hardware is already over. There's no choice but to make a difference in what kind of experience consumers can have when they turn their TVs on,” Baik said.
To that end, LG unveiled two new OLED TVs ― the LG OLED Flex, a 42-inch bendable OLED TV specialized for gaming and the 97-inch LG OLED evo Gallery Edition ― at the IFA tech fair.
“We unveiled two new OLED TVs at this year's fair. Now our OLED TV lineup covers a wider range of sizes from a 42-inch to a 97-inch model. The 97-inch one is three times larger than the 55-inch one, which is able to offer a more immersive experience to consumers,” he said.
For the Flex bendable TV, Baik said the company completed the product in cooperation with game experts.
“We began planning the product at the end of 2020. From the early planning stage, we invited game experts in Korea and Europe and tried to reflect their feedback as much as possible. For example, they recommended us to make a bendable TV because they prefer to play games with a curved monitor and watch videos with a flat screen,” Baik said.
Predicting future trends in the TV industry, Baik said that attempts to blur the boundary between TVs and smartphones will be made in the near future.
“Consumers not only enjoy watching TV at home but also use smartphones a lot. I estimate it is getting important for TV makers to come out with an effort to blur the boundary between them,” he said.