Latin America. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the LED video display industry in 2020. However, as the fallout gradually faded, the recovery began in the third quarter and accelerated further in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2020, 336,257 square meters were shipped, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 23.5%.
The China region demonstrates continued strength due to the rapid domestic economic recovery, along with the government's political support. In addition, delivery time and price advantages in the supply chain resulted in solid performance for thin pixel categories in the control room, control room, and transmission applications, especially in 1.00-1.49mm products.
Thin pixel pitch LED video screens seem to compete more frequently with LCD video walls for projects with a viewing area of more than 20-30 square meters. On the other hand, major Chinese brands suffered losses in operating costs compared to 2019 because they all aimed to expand market share in the China region through channel expansion and product line security.
Almost all regions except China continue to record negative year-on-year growth for the fourth quarter of 2020
Even though the global performance of the fourth quarter of 2020 was 0.2% higher than the previous quarter's forecast, regions in general, excluding China, still face negative annual growth, according to Omdia's LED video display market tracker.
As the UK and other key EU countries were again blocked in the fourth quarter, projects cannot be completed as scheduled due to conflicts between delivery and installation arrangements. Almost all brands showed a slight decrease in Western Europe, compared to the initial lockdown in the first half of 2020. As a result, Western Europe faltered by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter and 59.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to other pixel categories, the thin pixel category continued to thrive in indoor corporate facilities, broadcast rooms, and control rooms.
Eastern Europe has begun to recover in the fourth quarter of 2020 with quarter-on-quarter growth of 95.2%, but still shows a year-on-year decline of 64.7%. Brands showing strong growth include Absen, Leyard and LGE, with year-on-year growth this quarter of 70.2%, 648.6% and 29.6%, respectively. Thanks to AOTO and Leyard, the category of fine pixels had a significant growth of 225.6% quarter-on-quarter.
North American shipments declined slightly by 7.8% quarter-on-quarter, and year-on-year performance further declined by 41.9%, although few brands expanded such as LGE and Lighthouse. LGE's expansion with its fine pixel pitch products recorded year-over-year growth of 280.4%.
Daktronics maintains its leading position with a market share of 22.4% in this region, despite having fallen by 13.9% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter. As forecast by Omdia, shipments for the pixel pitch categories of <= 1.99 mm and 2-4.99 mm recovered from the fall in third quarter levels, increasing by 63.3% and 8.6% quarter-on-quarter, despite 5.1% and 12.9% year-on-year. -year of decline.
Brands focused on fine pixel pitch products gain revenue market share in 2020. Omdia defines the fine pixel pitch as less than 2.00mm, which reached a record 18.7% share in the fourth quarter, after declining due to COVID-19 in early 2020. Chinese LED brands like Leyard and Absen had positive activities for the pixel pitch category, and had a successful 2020 not only for the specific pixel pitch category but also for the overall global revenue outlook.
Leyard assumed leadership in global revenue market share in 2020. Especially, Leyard alone accounted for 24.9% of global shipping <= 0.99mm in the fourth quarter of 2020, followed by Unilumin and Samsung with a share of 15.1% and 14.9%, respectively. In addition, Leyard has averaged more than 30% unit share in the 1.00-1.49mm pixel pitch category, one of the top thin pixel pitch product categories since 2018.
Unilumin ranked second in revenue market share with the second quarter 2020 sales strategy change. Their sales force was more focused on the overseas market in the first quarter of 2020, but they stepped up sales efforts in domestic markets when overseas markets were still affected by COVID-19.
Samsung ranked fourth in 2020 overall revenue and achieved growth in most regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. However, if specified only for <= 0.99mm, Samsung ranked first with 30.6% revenue share, according to Omdia LED Video Displays Market Tracker, Premium - Pivot - History - 4Q20.
Tay Kim, Principal Analyst for Professional AV Devices at Omdia commented, "The recovery of the LED video display market in the fourth quarter of 2020 was driven by China. While other regions have not escaped the effects of the coronavirus, China alone continues to grow, reaching 68.9% share of global unit brand."
