According to the latest report, some analysts said that in the seven-year lawsuit between Samsung Display and LG Display over OLED panel technology, hundreds of South Korean engineers joined BOE. Moreover, Nikkei Asia reported that hundreds of South Korean engineers have joined BOE China for higher wages. These engineers are currently working on building OLED production lines in China.
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A company president who cooperated with LG Display was previously sued, and the president was accused of leaking trade secrets when LG Display jointly developed OLED panels. LG said the company’s president emailed Samsung Display personnel in May 2010 with technical data on the sealing of OLED panels.
At issue in the case is whether the panel sealing data is a trade secret. In the end, the court ruled that the economic value of the sealed technical data could not be confirmed, and the president of the company that cooperated with LG Display was cleared of the suspicion of leaking trade secrets, but the Korean display industry suffered a major blow in terms of human resources.
According to BusinessKorea, a Korean display industry official said, “As China is already growing into an OLED display powerhouse, they have absorbed many important talents and technologies from Korea, and the exodus of Korean display engineers has reached a considerable level.
Chinese companies are desperately trying to lure South Korean engineers, offering salaries three times their current wages. As China’s influence in the global OLED market continues to expand, many experts worry that South Korean display makers will lose their current position in the OLED display market due to China’s progress status “.
BusinessKorea said that China’s increasingly fierce offensive has made its display market share continue to rise, and fears are about to become reality. In particular, China has made great strides in the small and medium-sized OLED panel market, which has relatively low barriers to entry compared with large-sized panels.
According to data from market research firm Omdia, Samsung Display had almost monopolized the market for small and medium-sized OLED panels. Before 2017, Samsung Display occupied more than 90% of the market share.
However, Samsung Display’s market share in the first quarter of last year was 73.2%, LG displays were 14.3%, BOE’s 7.3%, and Huaxing’s 2.4%. Omdia predicts that South Korean companies’ market share could slip into the 60 percent range this year, while China’s could jump to 27 percent.
According to BusinessKorea, LG Display currently enjoys a 99.9% market share in the large OLED panel market, but its position is also being challenged. More and more South Korean engineers are trying to join Chinese companies.
For example, at the end of last year, an employee of LG Display was arrested by investigators before trying to hand over confidential data such as process blueprints for large OLED panels to a Chinese company. The investigation showed that the employee was working from home after entering the company’s internal network to obtain these data.
