President Promotion of 'Samsung Yong Seok-woo, LG Park Hyung-se'... Accelerating Global TV No.1 Competition

Samsung and LG Electronics Promote TV Experts Side by Side
Must Prepare for TV Demand Decline and Chinese Competition

2019 '8K TV' Resolution Rivalry

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are accelerating their efforts to expand market leadership by promoting their TV business heads to presidents. Next year's TV market is expected to face a challenging business environment due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, instability in raw material and energy supplies, and the impact of reduced real household income caused by global inflation, similar to this year. As they also need to devise strategies to counter the rapidly advancing Chinese companies, the strategic refinement by the two newly appointed presidents is expected to be crucial.

Through next year's executive appointments, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have empowered their TV businesses by appointing Yong Seok-woo, President of Samsung Electronics' Visual Display Business Division, and Park Hyung-se, President of LG Electronics' HE Business Division, respectively.

Born in 1970, the newly appointed President Yong Seok-woo is a TV development expert. He served as Senior Executive Vice President in charge of the development team at Samsung Electronics' Visual Display Business Division in December 2015, Executive Vice President in charge of the development team in 2020, Vice President and Head of the Development Team in December 2021, and has been Deputy Head of the division since December 2022. He is recognized for leading business growth across various fields including technology, sales, and strategy.

Born in 1966, the newly appointed President Park Hyung-se joined LG Electronics in 1994 and is an expert in the home entertainment field, having managed TV and IT businesses domestically and internationally. Since 2019, he has led the HE Business Division, solidifying LG's position as the global No. 1 in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs. He has been credited for upgrading the business portfolio and improving profitability by spearheading premium product lines and the webOS platform.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics appear determined to lead technology development and expand their dominance in the challenging TV market, thereby solidifying their 'No. 1 TV' titles.

Currently, the two companies dominate the global TV market. According to the Q3 global TV market report released by market research firm Omdia, Samsung Electronics recorded a market share of 29.9% based on sales, ranking first, while LG Electronics ranked second with a 16.4% sales-based market share. In the global OLED TV market, LG Electronics also demonstrated competitiveness by maintaining the No. 1 position with a shipment volume of 2,036,800 units in Q3 this year, accounting for approximately 55% market share.

However, Chinese companies are rapidly increasing their market shares. TCL's cumulative sales market share for Q3 reached 10.4%, up 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year, and Hisense also increased its influence from 8.6% to 9.3%.

In response, Samsung is expected to expand its OLED lineup launched again this year, in addition to its flagship Neo QLED and large-sized premium products. Since a patent lawsuit is ongoing with BOE, a Chinese panel partner, Samsung plans to focus on stabilizing panel supply as well.

Regarding President Yong's promotion, Samsung Electronics stated, "Through relentless challenges and innovation, we will solidify the foundation for being No. 1 in the TV business and lead the strengthening of technological leadership."

LG Electronics plans to focus on resolving the shrinking OLED TV market. OLED TVs are more expensive than LCD TVs, leading to recent sluggish sales. Market research firm DSCC forecasts that OLED TV shipments this year will decline to 5.6 million units compared to the same period last year.

Efforts are also expected to be made to overcome the structural stagnation in the market through the TV operating system webOS. Earlier, President Park set plans to generate advertising and content revenue of 500 billion KRW this year, 700 billion KRW next year, and over 1 trillion KRW by 2025 based on webOS. During this year's organizational restructuring, Park is expected to collaborate with the newly established Overseas Sales Headquarters under the CEO to rapidly expand customer base and strengthen the webOS business foundation.

The industry is also paying attention to the fact that Presidents Yong and Park, who had a rivalry over 8K TVs in 2019, were promoted to presidents together. The two had a dispute over Samsung Electronics' 8K TV picture quality, but the technical debate ended when Samsung Electronics received the '8K UHD' certification from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in the U.S. in 2020.

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