South Korean media: China's strong rise, does South Korea's display industry have a future?

On March 8, the South Korean media "Herald Economy" published an article stating that according to data from the Korean Display Industry Association, in the global panel market of 2024, China took the lead with a market share of 47.9%, surpassing South Korea's 33.4%. In terms of smartphone and foldable OLED shipments for 2025, China has risen to 48.8%, while South Korea maintains a slight advantage (52.1%) at the top. After OLED, does South Korea's display industry still have a future?

China's technological offensive, which originally started in the LCD field, has now shifted to the OLED field. By 2024, Chinese manufacturers accounted for as high as 48% of global OLED shipments. The attack launched by China in the LCD field has been continuously advancing into the OLED market for many years, and even the small-size OLED market, which South Korea had long dominated, is now facing a crisis.

In 2025, Samsung Display and LG Display managed to maintain their first place for the year due to the strong performance of the iPhone 17 and Galaxy S25. However, BOE's supply to Apple did not meet expectations, which had a positive impact on the South Korean market. Nevertheless, this situation is generally considered an exception. Market research institutions predict that "in 2026, China may achieve a reversal in smartphone OLED shipments."

Especially, the development of China's OLED industry is not directly related to Apple's supply situation. Some analysts even believe that even if BOE does not supply a single panel to Apple, China's overall shipments could still be on par with or even exceed South Korea's. This means that the core of resource competition has shifted to China.

In terms of current sales revenue and profitability, South Korea still holds an advantage. Due to a high proportion of high-end smartphones, it can effectively resist the pressure of rising unit prices. However, the imbalanced structure of shipment volume and sales revenue ratio is difficult to maintain in the long term. Once the production dominance is lost, it will be at a disadvantage in economies of scale and cost structure, eventually leading to price pressure in the high-end market. The South Korean industry has issued a warning: "If we do not prepare for after OLED, we will repeat the fate of LCD."

China's catch-up is not simply a price war. China has successfully established a virtuous cycle system that reinvests the huge profits from LCD into OLED. Unlike South Korea's choice to exit or reduce LCD business, China has successfully connected the cash flow of traditional businesses with next-generation technologies. Eventually, OLED technology has also achieved dual breakthroughs in price competitiveness and production advantages.

Technical gaps are also rapidly narrowing. While Samsung Display has captured the 8.6th generation OLED market, Chinese manufacturers are also making rapid progress. BOE has already started trial production at its Chengdu production line, and Visionox's 7.6 billion US dollar investment factory in Hefei is about to go into mass production this year. Some Chinese manufacturers are also narrowing the technical gap with South Korea by introducing new processes such as "maskless OLED," which does not use precision metal masks.

Many people evaluate that in terms of yield rate, service life, and mass production stability, South Korea still leads. Samsung Display has already shipped 8.6th generation OLED samples to major customer companies and completed batch verification. But the issue is time. Compared to "technical completion," China focuses more on "speed and scale," continuously narrowing the development gap. Just like in the LCD field, they are taking the same path in OLED, increasing the sense of crisis in the South Korean industry.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1859092341845059/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.