Analysis of South Korea and its nearly complete withdrawal of LED industry

The characters used, hiragana are just pinyin tools to communicate with the common people. With the weakening of China's national power and the policy of leaving Asia and joining Europe, there are fewer and fewer Chinese characters in Japanese. They are replaced by the original hiragana and katakana of pinyin loanwords. Before the Second World War, the loanwords were mainly German, French and English, supplemented. After the Second World War, Japanese is almost a loanword of American English. Isn't this the change of power in modern times?

First China, then Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and then the United States.

Fortunately, if you go to Japan recently, you may find that there are more and more Chinese characters. Japan has even begun to have Chinese character testing exams and Chinese character calligraphy learning activities. This shows that China’s national power is indeed rising. Without the rise of our national power, such a change is impossible. I hope that one day the proportion of Chinese characters in Japanese will exceed that of foreign words, and Seoul in South Korea will be changed to Seoul. This is the most convincing rise of China and the Chinese dream.

Like small and medium-sized countries or economies, all resources will be concentrated in this capital city. Seoul is like a complex of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Take a look at the map below:

Picture: South Korea's high-tech industry map. The secondary cities in Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul are semiconductor and optoelectronic high-tech centers. Except for Daegu, other cities have relatively few high-tech electronic industries.

Seoul is the headquarters of almost all companies. However, due to the cluster supporting effect and production cost considerations, the technology manufacturing industry will be scattered around Seoul. Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province is almost Samsung City, so there is a South Korean football powerhouse Suwon Samsung team that is often an opponent of Guangzhou Evergrande in the AFC Champions League.

As shown in the figure, South Korea’s first-level administrative regions include "Dao", "Seoul Special City" and several "wide cities". Gyeonggi Province surrounds Seoul, a bit like the relationship between Jiangsu and Shanghai or the relationship between Taiwan and Taipei. The secondary cities in Gyeonggi Province are almost all satellite cities of Seoul. Most of the high-tech and electronic industries are in these cities. Samsung Electronics and supporting manufacturers are all in Suwon.

In 2006, I first went to South Korea to visit the LED manufacturer Epiplus, which was later renamed Galaxy, and was located in Suwon City. Another LED company, Epivalley, was located in Guangzhou City.

Samsung Semiconductor’s wafer factory is located in Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province. The well-known Seoul Semiconductor of South Korea is in Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province. LG Display has a large LCD factory in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province. Hynix Semiconductor, a joint venture between LG and SK Group, is headquartered in Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province. There is a 12-inch Dram wafer fab in Cheongju City, North Chungcheong Province.

This should be easy for people to understand. Many Korean white-collar engineers I know almost all live in Seoul. More advanced white-collar workers even live in the wealthy Gangnam district in Han Gangnam, which is the Gangnam style described by South Korea's Uncle Psy. Almost all of them drive or commute to work, so these satellite cities are within the one-hour living circle of Seoul.

South Korea’s high-tech industry layout is almost centered around Seoul, gradually moving from high-tech industries to traditional industries. Busan is in the south of South Korea and is the second largest city in South Korea. However, there are almost no high-tech industries. They are all traditional textiles, automobile tires, petroleum processing, machinery, chemicals and other industries. Of course, regional politics and culture will also affect the layout of the entire industry. Therefore, Gumi City in Gyeongsangbuk-do, the hometown of Park Chung-hee and Park Geun-hye, is also an important town for LG Display investment.

Daegu is the third largest city, more than 300 kilometers away from Seoul. It is also a high-tech town. Samsung and LG have significant investments here. In 2013, I visited Heesung Electronics, a company affiliated with LG. Heesung mainly provided backlight modules to LG. At that time, South Korea had begun to buy chips and epitaxial wafers from us for backlighting. Daegu City is an important production base for backlight modules of LG Group. I believe that I have also manufactured the LED chips in LG LCD TVs.

Of course, this is also a key area for the upgrading of traditional industries. Daegu City is an important town for cutting-edge high value-added fiber and fashion industries. I guess the reason is not only ordinary... In addition to the gap between the north and the south, like the hometowns of national leaders in mainland China such as Yangzhou City or Shaanxi Province and Tainan City, the base of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, South Korea is also a very traditional oriental society. Several South Korean leaders such as Roh Tae-woo, Kim Dae-jung, Kim Young-sam and Roh Moo-hyun were all born in southern South Korea or near Daegu City, which may be one of the reasons why high-tech industries are deployed here.

　2. Observation of humanities and society in South Korea

Having met many Koreans, I found that Confucian culture has a profound impact on this country, resulting in people in this place having a strict sense of hierarchy, with superiors having supreme authority over subordinates, and the introduction and popularization of Christianity. And, this country is full of contradictions, especially when it comes to treating Chinese culture and China. They try their best to cut ties and connections with China. From the beginning of writing to the change from Seoul to Seoul, they are not allowed to get close to China for the sake of reality. Because of their sense of superiority to China, many things have to be cut off from China.

South Korea is a country with almost no natural resources. What is even more unfortunate is that South Korea is sandwiched between China, Russia and Japan, the three major countries in the world. Therefore, South Korea has a very great sense of urgency. Their eagerness for success is stronger than that of China after reform and opening up. Almost every Korean has been working hard all his life. On the outside, South Korea has Beauty and handsomeness can be achieved through plastic surgery, and the same goes for many Korean products. Korean products such as cars, 3C or home appliances are very good-looking on the outside and can quickly attract your attention, but other inner things are more difficult, so they work hard to get into SKY (Seoul National University Seoul) in college. University, Korea University and Yonsei University), it seems that you are a loser in life if you have not entered the Samsung Group. Therefore, the output value of various exam cram schools is huge, it is said that it has exceeded 50 billion US dollars. Even when I was in Korea, the beautiful tutors on TV were dressed like celebrities and taught English, mathematics and even physics classes. Even I was learning through the rhythm of the beautiful teacher's narration without realizing it.

Every time I go to South Korea, I feel that the people here seem to be tired and hardworking all their lives. The biggest consequence of such hard work and extreme hard work is that they are unable to follow up. Just like when they drink, if they have the guts but not the capacity to drink, they can fight with you, but they often end up drunk and unable to follow up.

It is difficult to complete great works with such a national character, so you can notice that there are almost no Korean masters in various fields. There are no masters in music except pop music, no masters in art, and almost no literature. In science, Professor Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University, who once had high hopes in South Korea, has falsified stem cell research results.

Koreans sometimes do extreme and unscrupulous things in order to accomplish one thing. As long as they succeed and are not discovered or exposed, they will not care what others think. Think about the 2002 World Cup football match, think about the patriotic referees in Korean Taekwondo, and think about what the attitude of the Koreans would be if Hwang Woo-suk won the Nobel Prize and the fraud was discovered afterwards. As long as no flaws or problems are found, you must not criticize them. In the most extreme cases, they may even fall out with you.

I think South Korea’s far-sighted leaders should have seen this problem very early. Before 1998, Korean products, like Chinese products now, could only compete at low prices. Korean pop culture belonged to the border of Asia, and was several grades behind Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Therefore, after the financial crisis in 1998, President Kim Dae-jung started the transformation of South Korea. He did not ask whether there were masters, but whether it would create a trend. Technological products did not ask for perfection, but the human experience must be just right. Isn't this the trend of the 21st century? Koreans have seized on the rapid elimination and renewal of consumption and the rapid formation of pop culture. The quality of Samsung mobile phones is not as good as that of Nokia, Apple, and Sony, but its functions and longevity are exactly the consumption trend of mobile phone users. Korean celebrities are all handsome and beautiful, endorsing Korean products, making the young generation in Asia feel more about idols than products. The rhythm and arrangement of pop music are catchy, and idol groups of boys and girls are good at dancing and rapping, which has become a popular trend in Asia and even the world. A Korean wave has indeed taken over the world.

Without the foresight set by the deep understanding of myself, the Korean Wave and Korean Wave would not have come so quickly and urgently. You may not like Korea, but your wife and children will make you pay money to Koreans. This is the magic of Korea.

3. South Korea’s LED industry: from its heyday to its complete withdrawal

Compared with Japan and Taiwan, the history of Korean LED developed relatively late, almost at the same time as Mainland China, but it progressed faster than Mainland China. Just like their national character of being eager for success and overexertion, the decline rate of lack of success is also faster than that of Japan and Taiwan. I divide Korean LED into three periods: EE's two typical LED upstream companies' double E period, the heyday of SSL with the full participation of Samsung Seoul and LG, and the current period of full withdrawal from China's rise

　1) EE's double. E period

This period refers to the two early LED companies in Korea, one is called Epivalley and the other is called Epiplus. The source of Korean early LED technology was the returnees who studied in Japan like me, because they all studied Japanese MOCV. D technology, it will be difficult to introduce this technology into mass-produced Aixtron or Veeco MOCVD equipment. In addition, their customers are major international manufacturers such as Samsung or LG. In order to avoid international patents, many epitaxy and chip technologies are subject to greater restrictions.

Therefore, the technology of the early Korean LED companies was far behind Taiwan, and even followed Taiwan. More than ten years ago, I knew a few people who made a fortune selling Korean downgrade LED chips. Their sources of supply came from these two companies. Since the products were not as good as those above (Taiwan), but more than those below (Mainland), so early mainland LED upstream companies also cooperated with these two companies.

After 2008, with the introduction of graphics substrate PSS technology, LED technology became more and more mature. Zhouxing Engineering, the parent company of Epivally, also completed its own MOCVD design, and finally used its residual value to combine patents and technology. The technology was sold to Mainland China's local tycoon E Company and made a lot of money. The three large companies of SSL began to invest heavily in their own LED divisions due to the demand for large-size backlights. The talent squeeze effect and scale effect accelerated the end of the two companies, so the two companies slowly disappeared after completing their phased tasks.

2) SSL era

During the SSL period, Samsung Electronics, Seoul Semiconductor, and LG Display achieved breakthroughs in using graphic substrates to enhance LED brightness. Large-size backlights began to fully penetrate LEDs, and the demand for LEDs surged. Samsung and LG purchased large amounts of MOCVD from the United States and Germany, accelerating their full entry into the LED industry chain. Seoul Semiconductor also used patents and technologies to rapidly extend the industry chain and begin to expand its global footprint, even colliding with Japan's Nichia Chemical Company.

Due to the huge demand for exports, these three companies quickly entered the top ten of the LED industry in the world, especially Seoul Semiconductor. Although it started as a packaging factory, it absorbed early technical elites studying in Japan, cooperated with Japan's very famous Tokushima University and Tohoku University, and obtained these universities' precious initial original LED patents, such as the AC of Tokushima University's Shiro Sakai laboratory, Nakamura Shuji's teacher. The Japanese original patents for LED and high-voltage LED have been licensed to Seoul Semiconductor. With this foundation, although Seoul Semiconductor does not have a large outlet, relying on its patents and technology management, it has still stood firm and adhered to Korea's LED banner.

The peak of this period was in 2012. At this time, almost all backlights were changed to LED, and lighting was also beginning to show its promise. Samsung and LG also began to enter the lighting brand and increase the layout of LEDs. However, the good times did not last forever, as the demand for backlights fell off a cliff. , LED lighting prices began to be strongly impacted by manufacturers in mainland China, and Samsung and LG's OLEDs also made initial breakthroughs. As Samsung LED lighting retreated from the world's finished product market, this glory gradually faded away, leaving only Seoul Semiconductor still fighting.

3) Full withdrawal period

The third period is the full withdrawal period. After 2013, large-size backlights have been 100% fully penetrated. Mainland China's LED has fully emerged. South Korea has begun to look for the next generation of display technology. South Korea's LED has fully withdrawn. In addition to Seoul Semiconductor continuing to increase investment in CSP technology, the LED departments of Samsung and LG only continue to develop new generation technologies to meet the needs of the group and have no major external actions.

In order to seek cost-effective chips and lamp beads, small and medium-sized Korean LED companies began to stop manufacturing LEDs and purchased LEDs in large quantities from Chinese LED manufacturers to maintain their market share. Even the three major SSL manufacturers began to look for OEMs due to cost pressures and no longer produced LEDs themselves. According to my many years of experience, these major Korean manufacturers will eventually sell off their LED departments like European and American companies. The buyers are probably our Chinese manufacturers.

4. The future of South Korea's technology industry

1) Optimistic perspective:

Currently in South Korea, the attention of LED has almost disappeared, replaced by OLED and quantum dot QD. South Korea has an advantage. It has a very strong electronic product industry chain exporting to the sea. Korean products will never be original.

But they have another advantage. As long as they are determined, no matter how much it costs, they will also get original technology, industrialize and carry forward this technology. This is true for previous LCDs, semiconductors, and now OLED and quantum dot QD. As long as Koreans still work hard like Saburo, the future of Korean technology industry will still be bright.

2) Pessimistic aspect:

South Korea is a country that wants to do everything. They make IC, LED and LCD. They not only want to make the industrial chain, but they also want to make equipment. They want to do everything. As a result, the technology industry around the world is its enemy and is very wary of them. I have said before that without the secret support of Japanese scientific and technological personnel, it will be very difficult for them to obtain higher and more advanced technologies at low prices. Samsung and many Chinese The relationship with American companies is both suppliers and rivals. Such a relationship is difficult to maintain. Samsung and LG must have strong exports to maintain their industrial chain factories. If not, as long as there are Chinese, Japanese or Taiwanese manufacturers that can replace Samsung and LG's key materials or accessories, they will definitely kick Korean manufacturers away. Huge industrial chain factories like Samsung and LG will be under great pressure.

Due to the lack of resources in South Korea, it is not enough to support the industry chain model of doing everything in the world, so the things and products it makes are just right and marginal. It is not impossible that a little carelessness may cause fatal quality problems. After all, if the group's own subsidiaries have the sophistication of Eastern society, problems with improper management within the group will also occur.

Koreans often ask themselves, do we want Samsung in the world or Samsung in Korea? It may take a long, long time to resolve such a profound contradiction. Will this Samsung mobile phone battery explosion be the beginning of the answer? Will it be a turning point for South Korea's technology industry to grow from prosperity to prosperity?

Success is a Samsung, failure is a Samsung, this may be the fate of South Korea.