For years, Korea has been sitting comfortably on top but sometime during 2018 the balance tipped as China surpassed Korea in global LCD TV shipments, according to IHS Markit and a report by Business Korea.
China has outrun Korea
In the first 3 quarters of 2018, a total of 152 million LCD TVs were shipped globally. Chinese companies accounted for 31.9% (48.56m) followed by Korean companies who accounted for 30.6% (46.58m) and 14.6% (22.19m) from Japanese companies.
China expanded its lead as the year progressed and took a 34.7% market share when looking at the third quarter of 2018 in isolation. Many of those TVs are sold in China but companies such as TCL and Hisense are starting to grow in popularity in the US and Europe, where Korea’s Samsung and LG as well as Japan’s Sony hold strong market positions.
IHS Markit pointed out that China overtook Korea in the LCD TV panel market in 2017 and sometime last year it overtook Korea in shipments of actual LCD TVs. Samsung and LG are still the two leading players in the market but the analyst company believes that it is only a matter of time before China will take the initiative.
"It is only a matter of time that China will take the initiative in the TV market"
Besides LCD TVs, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese players sell OLED TVs but these still makes up only a small segment of the overall TV market. Last year, a total of 2.45 million OLED TVs were sold globally. That number is expected to increase to 3.4 million this year. Plasma TVs have been phased out.
- Source: IHS Markit via Business Korea
