The Statistic Report issued recently by China Video Industry Association (CVIA) shows that, in the first three quarters of this year, China's export sales volume of color TV in the foreign market has exceeded that in the domestic market. From January to September of 2007, the total exported volume of color TV was 3190.15 million, increased by 0.12 percent year on year; the total sales volume in the domestic market was 2672.14 million, 118 percent lower than the same period of last year. It is worth noticing that the adjustment of industrial structure has affected the CRT production volume and has caused a decrease in the total production volume of color TV; besides, the adjustment of demand structure in the export market is faster than that in the domestic market.
It is introduced that, from January to September of 2007, the total production in the color TV industry in China was 58.629 million, 5.8 percent lower than the same period of last year: the production of CRT color TV was 37.48mln, decreased 2118 percent year on year while the production of flat-screen color TV was 2114.19 million, increased by 47.3 percent over the same period of last year. At the same time, the market occupation rate of flat-screen TV increased quickly; its occupation rate in the whole market has increased from 23.1 percent in last year to the present 36.1percent while the rate of CRT color TV is 63.9percent. The official in charge of relevant matters in CVIA said that the fall in the total production volume of color TV was a result of the industrial structure adjustment, including the obvious decrease in the production of CRT color TV.
Statistics show that in the third quarter of this year the sales volume of LCD TV was 1.38 million, 9 percent lower than the second quarter, occupying 192 percent in the color TV market, but its sales volume proportion in the color TV market has reached 55.6 percent. The product specifications and structures of the LCD TV market entered into a relatively steady development period in the third quarter; products of 32-inch and 40-inch-42-inch were occupying about 35 percent and 25 percent in the market respectively.
The sales volume of PDP TV in the third quarter reached 0.109 million, 5.8 percent lower than the second quarter. The structure of the product specification has changed greatly. The introduction of 32-inch PDP TV has injected a new vigor to the PDP TV market; just in the third quarter, its sales volume has exceeded 20 thousand, taking up 23 percent of the whole PDP TV market, while the market share of 42-inch PDP TV continued decreasing.
Sun Xinguo, Director of CVIA Research and Consultation Department, believes that after several years' fast growth in the LCD TV market, the market scale and the family possession already have achieved a very big cardinal number at present; besides the main consumption community is still located in the city, therefore the market sale increase of LCD TV has clearly slowed down this year.
Stat. Report also shows that, from the second half year of 2006, the market shares of foreign brands have been continuously increasing, and their retail volume has almost come up with domestic brands. From June 2007, domestic brands and foreign brands have maintained a market share of 55 percent and 45 percent respectively. Now there is an obvious evidence of brands concentration in the LCD TV market. Among the top ten brands in the aspect of retail sale volume, domestic brands and foreign brands occupy five seats respectively and in the foreign brands only SUMSUNG was listed in the top five.
Therefore, the operation strategy of domestic TV producers needs to change along with the change in the TV market structure. Regarding technology, domestic TV producers must speed up the R&D to realize the complete-machine technology and functional differentialization. Considering the market shares, from 2005 to 2007, the market shares of domestic flat-screen TV brands all have kept at over 50 percent. However, a good performance cannot cover up the problems in flat-screen TV industry, that is, the lack of upstream industrial chain. Several large upstream panel producers including BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd, SUA (Group) Co., Ltd, and Longteng Optronics own three 5-G TFT-LCD panel production lines, but their annual production capacity is about 2.7 million, less than half of the 5-G and above panel production capacity of SUMSUNG. And at the moment the core panel display technology is mainly mastered by foreign brands like SONY, PANASONIC, SHARP, SUMSUNG and PHILLIPS. Under the condition of lacking the ability to exchange technology in this field with foreign companies, domestic flat-screen TV brands will have to face the embarrass that the production volume equals to corresponding patent fees to the competitors; what's more the market advantage is hard to keep in the long run.
Next considering the product allocation, domestic TV producers should strive to realize the differentialization in market structure. Regarding the areas, flat-screen TV sets are mainly sold in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and haven't got popularization in middle and small cities. As for the size, large screen (32-inch and above) flat-screen TV occupies the most proportion; exploration needs to be carried out in middle-and-small-size LCD TV market. Compared with foreign brands, domestic brands owns relatively perfect sales network. The cost to explore in the middle and small cities is lower than the foreign brands. With the fall in the price of flat-screen TV, middle and small cities will become a new growth point. Domestic TV brands also have great development space in middle-and-small-size products. On one hand, after possessing large-screen flat TV, many families prefer to have middle-and-small-size flat-screen TV in bedrooms and reading rooms. On the other hand, the continuous growth of car TV and elevator advertisements has created new demands for middle-and-small-size flat-screen TV.
Also domestic TV producers need to notice the differentialization of products. At present, many domestic flat-screen TV brands look alike in appearance, color, style and functions neglecting the differences of consumers in age, gender and consumption preference, and mainly run for the market by "price competition". In fact thinking and making decisions in another way will be much beneficial to the increase of sales volume. For example, the mobile phone designed by TCL for female consumers years ago has made a record of 1.04 million in the quarter sale volume. Its success in the market segmentation is a good reference for other TV producers.
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