South Korea's display industry is one of the country's key industries, leading the global market with its cutting-edge technology. South Korea has long enjoyed the world's No. 1 market share, but China's rapid pursuit has reversed the market share and widened the gap. China began to lead the market after making large-scale investments and gaining price competitiveness in the LCD market. As a result, China's global market share rose from just 14.1% in 2015 to over 50% in 2024.

South Korea has successfully transitioned its industrial structure to OLED and is dominating the global display industry with China. Unlike South Korea, which leads in OLED, the country’s previous major rivals—Taiwan and Japan—are gradually losing their importance in the display market.

China's large-scale investment has intensified the game of chicken in the LCD market, and South Korea is responding by shifting its industrial ecosystem to OLED. Samsung Display has discontinued LCD production, and LG Display has also quickly moved to scale back production by selling its LCD plant in Guangzhou, China. These changes are clearly reflected in the shift in South Korea's export product structure. The share of OLED products in South Korea’s display exports, which remained at around 50% until 2020, has now risen to 74.7%. Considering that the demand for display panels is very low in the South Korean market, the increase indicates that the country’s display ecosystem has successfully transitioned to OLED.

The transition to OLED is not limited to changes in the product lineup of panel manufacturers but is leading to broader changes across the entire ecosystem. Makers of materials, components, and equipment are also shifting their businesses from LCD to OLED, actively working to enter the Chinese market and sell off their LCD divisions. South Korea’s leading display material manufacturer LG Chem has closed its main LCD material businesses, including polarizers, photosensitive materials, and glass substrates, in line with the reduction in LCD production by its sister company LG Display.

Across the overall display industry, there is a noticeable reduction in production value, the number of companies, and the number of employees. However, a closer look at the OLED segment shows that the industry continues to grow by refining products.

COVID-19 had a negative impact on most industries, but the IT product market grew significantly along with the active transition to the non-face-to-face economy. In particular, the number of IT products owned per household increased, mainly tablets and laptops, as more people worked from home and took remote classes. These changes led to the growth of the display market, but the market also contracted significantly after the pandemic.

The global display market turned to growth after 2024, led by the arrival of the replacement cycle of products purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reached USD 134.8 billion. Going forward, the market is expected to continue growing steadily, centered on OLED. The expansion of the user base for tablets and laptops has led to higher-value-added products, which is reflected in the increasing penetration rate of OLED products. In 2024, Apple launched iPads fitted with OLED panels and is preparing to apply OLED panels to its MacBook models. The IT giant’s move is expected to stimulate the market by encouraging other competitors to adopt OLED.

Panel companies are also investing in 8.6-generation RGB-OLED production to meet the growing demand for OLED panels in IT products. Thus, their competitiveness will depend mostly on the ability to secure mass production capacity. Samsung Display is set to complete the construction of its 8.6-generation RGB-OLED production line this year, with full-scale operations expected to begin in 2026, offering an opportunity for the company to regain its market leadership.

The South Korean government is also responding to these market changes by continuously introducing various policy measures to help companies stay competitive. Through its Display Innovation Strategy, the government has outlined a roadmap for industrial development and established an incentive structure by designating high-tech industrial complexes to offer tax benefits and build specialized clusters. In R&D, the government is building and operating a public testbed by launching a project aimed at building a platform for innovating the display production process. It is also committed to securing competitiveness in next-generation displays such as micro-LED by pursuing an inorganic light-emitting display project.

South Korea's display industry is growing more competitive by closely working with foreign companies. Foreign investors play an important role as key agents in the industrial ecosystem, and the transition to the OLED ecosystem further highlighted their importance. Many companies that play a central role in the display ecosystem, such as Dongwoo Fine-chem, Merck, Corning, and Ulvac, have entered the market and are championing industrial development.