Samsung Electronics has been named as the best selling TV brand in the world for the 14th successive year, beating out its eternal rival LG Electronics. But the year also saw success for several Chinese TV makers, which are slowly closing the gap on the South Korean market leaders.
Samsung became the world’s best selling TV maker in 2006 when it surpassed Sony in terms of total units sold. And since then, the company hasn’t looked back.
Last year, Samsung accounted for 19.8% of all global TV sales, with LG coming in second place with a 12.2% share of the pie. TCL came third with 9.2% of all TV sales, followed by fellow Chinese brands Hisense (7.8%) and Xiaomi (5.8%). That puts three Chinese brands in the world’s top 5, with former king Sony nowhere to be seen.
Interestingly, Samsung’s lead has fallen somewhat compared to previous years, mostly due to the Chinese incursion, especially at the low-end of the market. Samsung sold 22.5% of all TVs globally in 2014, but its share has steadily eroded since then. In 2019, Samsung also lost its number one spot in the North American market, as TCL shipped more TVs to that market for the first time.
Samsung has an even more dominating lead in terms of sales revenue though, thanks to the profitability of its higher-end products. In terms of revenue, Samsung owns 30.9% of the TV market, up 1.9% from the year before. The company is especially dominant in the premium 75-inch+ segment, at a time when consumers are increasingly choosing larger TV models.
Sony does at least hold on to its top 5 spot in terms of sales revenue, ranking third overall with 9.4%.
IHS Markit, which provided the data to South Korean news website Yonhap, did not specify how many TVs were sold globally in 2019, but previous estimates put the number at around 215 million.
