South Korea Lost Its Top Spot in Displays to China Again Last Year... OLED Dominates 8:2 Victory

Gap Narrowed Slightly from 8%P to 5.6%P
OLED at 81%... Overwhelming China at 18%

South Korea remained the world's second-largest display market last year, trailing China once again. The gap narrowed slightly from 8 percentage points to 5.6 percentage points. However, in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) market share, South Korea achieved a decisive victory with an 8:2 ratio.

The Korea Display Industry Association announced these details in its "Key Statistics of the Display Industry" report on the 27th.

Looking at last year's global market share, China held the top position for the second consecutive year with 42.5%, surpassing South Korea (36.9%) and Taiwan (18.2%). South Korea had been the world leader for 17 years since 2004 but was overtaken by China in 2021 and remained in second place last year.

China continued its dominance in the liquid crystal display (LCD) sector, holding a majority share of 55.5%. Taiwan (27.6%), South Korea (13.5%), and Japan (2.9%) followed.

South Korea strategically reduced LCD production, with LG Display ending domestic production and Samsung Display withdrawing from the business. Meanwhile, China’s BOE and HKC continued investing in new LCD capacity expansions. Notably, BOE, the world's top revenue-generating company, captured 32.1% of the large LCD market, increasing its influence in the TV and PC markets.

At the '2023 World IT Show' held on the 19th at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the 'LG SIGNATURE OLED M' was exhibited. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

South Korea targeted the rapidly growing OLED market. The share of OLED in the global display market grew from 27.3% in 2021 to 34.3% last year.

South Korea ranked first with an 81.3% share of the OLED market, overwhelmingly surpassing China’s 17.9%. In the high value-added OLED TV market, South Korea, the only country with mass production technology, held a 100% market share. In the LTPO OLED market, which is 2.5 times more expensive than mid-end LTPS OLEDs used in mobile phones, South Korea’s share reached 98.5%.

In the fiercely competitive IT market for new investments by global panel companies, South Korea held a 93.9% share of high-end UHD (3840×2160) and above products.

However, China’s growth rate in the OLED market was also very rapid. Last year, China’s share of the small- and medium-sized OLED market was 20%. It took China seven years to reach a 20% share in small- and medium-sized OLEDs, faster than the 10 years it took for small- and medium-sized LCDs.

South Korea’s OLED exports last year increased by 5.3% year-on-year to $15.3 billion (approximately 20.52 trillion won). By country, export shares were Vietnam 77%, China 17%, and India 1%. Dependence on exports to China decreased, while exports to Vietnam and India increased. China’s export share dropped from 37% in 2017 to 17% last year, while Vietnam’s rose from 51% to 77% during the same period.

Lee Dong-wook, vice chairman of the association, said, "The narrowing gap in market share between Korea and China (in the overall global market) is due to rapidly shifting to high value-added businesses such as OLED, thereby enhancing competitiveness."