[Square] Display is a Bicycle

Kim Seongjin, Executive Vice President of Korea Display Industry Association, Opinion Piece

Seongjin Kim, Executive Vice President of the Korea Display Industry Association

Recently, cycling has become popular due to social distancing and non-face-to-face lifestyles, and the key to riding a bicycle well is to pedal evenly with both the left and right pedals. Otherwise, the bicycle will fall over.

Our display industry is the same. We must pedal the left and right pedals of ‘technological innovation’ and ‘proactive investment’ in balance. If there is a problem with either pedal, the bicycle will fall. The reason why Korea’s display industry has maintained the world’s number one position for the past 17 years is precisely because the ‘two pedals’ of technological innovation and proactive investment have worked in harmony.

The display industry has a shorter history compared to other manufacturing industries but is one of the fastest evolving industries in terms of technology. It started with cathode ray tubes, evolved to LCD and OLED, and now technology is advancing to foldable, rollable, and stretchable displays.

Korea is at the center of technological advancement in the global display industry. Since successfully commercializing OLED for the first time in the world in 2007, Korea has led the global display market with ‘world firsts’ such as the world’s first OLED smartphone launch, the world’s first 55-inch OLED TV release, and the world’s first 55-inch transparent OLED.

Korea’s leap to the world’s number one position in the LCD market in 2004 was also due to being the first in the world to make a 5th-generation LCD investment ahead of Japan. Similarly, China’s rise to the number one position in the global LCD market in 2018 was because it was the first in the world to invest in 10.5-generation LCD production.

As such, the display industry can only lead the market when the left and right pedals of technological innovation and proactive investment mesh well together. What is the current situation faced by Korea’s display industry, which has maintained the number one position in the world so far?

In the early 2000s, the global display market was dominated by the four powers of Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan, but it has now been reorganized into a two-power system between Korea and China. China selected the display industry as a national key growth industry and, through astronomical financial support, took the number one position in the LCD market in 2018.

Fortunately, while China was making large-scale investments in LCD, we occupied 87% of the global OLED market last year through technological development and proactive investment in next-generation OLED and QD.

However, China is not satisfied with LCD and is planning large-scale investments in the OLED field backed by the government. Although our government has provided significant support to the display industry so far, compared to the Chinese government’s support, our display industry is fighting on a tilted playing field.

Displays are the core that determines the competitiveness of IT devices such as laptops, mobile phones, and TVs. Moreover, they are expanding infinitely into new fields such as automobiles and medical devices. If semiconductors are the brain of the 4th industrial revolution, displays are the ‘eyes.’ If the display industry falls in competition with China, our industry will lose the ‘eyes’ that communicate with the world.

This year, we may have to give up the number one market share position in displays to China. For Korea to become a stronger IT powerhouse, academia, industry, research institutes, and the government must join forces to restore the competitiveness of the display industry.

Especially considering that we are competing on a tilted playing field against China, it is a time when the government’s more active role and support are needed. Next year, we look forward to seeing our display industry vigorously pedaling the two pedals of technological innovation and proactive investment and speeding ahead.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.