Japan is starting to be ousted from a world TV market that is made up of South Korea, China, and Japan. Henceforth, it is predicted that the market will be controlled by Samsung and LG Electronics while Samsung challenges their control.
According to witswiew.com of Taiwanese market investigation enterprise on the 10th, Sony fell to 5th place as they recorded 5.6% of share sales in first quarter. Although they were able to hold third place for many years in difficult circumstances, their share sales fell significantly this year. Sharp, which was 8th place in fourth quarter of last year, fell beyond 10th place. As Panasonic also fell beyond 10th place, Japanese industries’ slump begins to stand out, and restructuring of Japanese TV market is imminent.
Business circle sees this as a collapse of Japanese TV market, and Japanese TV market began to be moved back by South Korea since middle of 2000’s and it also allowed a turn-around from China in 2013. Japanese TV market sales fell below 20% last year and it is falling very rapidly in this year’s first quarter.
“There is an assumption that Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, and Japanese industries switched their plan to securing profits in niche market rather than an absolute sales volume. It is difficult to recover its share sales in a short period of time.” A person in a business circle diagnosed about Japan’s future plan in a TV market.
South Korea, China, and Japan were chosen as top 3 in TV market and they produce about 70~80% of TVs in the world. A possibility that Japanese TV market, which were believed that it will never be moved back until mid 2000’s, will be completely out of major market starting this year became bigger. In this fierce competition, reorganization of global TV market is imminent.
As Japanese industries are falling quickly, world’s TV market is reorganized as a bilateral match between South Korea and China.
Profits fell for TV industries in recent years due to a fierce competition between industries, and there was a shortage supply of panels since second half of last year. It led to an increase in panel price, which also led to Samsung and LG Electronics making a deficit in this year’s first quarter. It can be translated that Japanese repair strategy ‘TV Chicken Game’ will come to an end soon.
Although Japan is beginning to fall out of the picture, Chinese impact will begin to increase. Having huge domestic markets as its base, Chinese industries are expanding their territories beyond their country. It is a feature that TCL, Hisense, Changhong, Konka, and many industries are jumping into TV market.
Business circle is even seeing that Chinese manufacturers, which have weak brand names, are buying Japanese brand names for marketing purposes.
A possibility increased that Samsung and LG’s control will only strengthen in TV market as one of their competitors begins to disappear. South Korea is better than China in brand value, technologies, and in many ways as of yet.
Samsung and LG’s status in expensive and premium products are even better. South Korea’s companies’ share sales was 37.1% last year, but it was 48.9% in number of sales of TVs that are worth more than 1000 dollars. This shows that their status is strong in premium products.
“Although Samsung and LG are facing deficits in their sales, they are taking offensive stands as they prepare for Chinese TV market’s expansion. It will be possible that Samsung and LG will grab bigger opportunities as they are strong in premium products and as Japanese industries are falling.” A person in business circle said about present and future plans for Samsung and LG businesses in TV market.
Senior Reporter Kim,Seungkyu | seung@etnews.com