By Choi Sung-jin
Chinese manufacturers of TV sets are targeting Korea with far lower prices and almost equal quality, industry sources say.
Leading the pack is TCL, the world's fifth-largest TV maker. TCL, which recently signed a sales agency contract with Lotte Himart, will offer full-HD LED TV sets with 32, 40 and 50-inch screens in Korea for this Christmas. Early next year, it also plans to sell UHD TVs with wider, curved screens.
"As our market share is rising in the two largest TV markets in the world, the United States and China, we are confident there are little differences in product quality compared with those of Samsung and LG," a TCL executive said.
The Chinese maker's immediate objective is to increase its sales to 60 billion won in the Korean market next year. To solve the problem of poor after-sales service, TCL has linked with Dongbu Electronics.
TCL's biggest advantage is price, which will likely be 20-30 percent lower than Korean full-HD LED TVs. In the case of high-end UHD or LED TVs, TCL's prices will be little more than half those of Samsung and LG. The lower prices and the improving consumer perception of Chinese electronic products have huge potential to erode domestic makers' market share.
TCL and other Chinese makers have grown rapidly under their government's protection of home markets and indigenous brand images. Their technological level has also risen to threaten Korean makers. At an international electronics fair in Berlin last year, TCL unveiled "Quantumdot TV" ahead of the two Korean market leaders. Even more threatening are the challenges of Shaomi, the UHD TVs of which are priced at one-third of Korean products.
Samsung and LG, which together hold about 80 percent of the domestic market, are considering cutting prices, giving domestic consumers more choices.
"In price terms, Korean makers cannot compete with Chinese companies because of a wide gap in wages and other costs," an industry analyst said. "The Korean companies have no other choices but to move toward premium models that not only feature sharper pictures but appeal to consumers' sensibility."