Konka Establishes Its Leadership in the Micro LED Market with Major Investment in Research Institute

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 19, 2019 /CNW/ -- The Konka Group, a leading digital home entertainment manufacturer and one of the top five TV brands in China, doubled down on its goal to lead the industry in developing and building the Micro LED market with an investment of 1.5 billion yuan (more than $215 million) towards research and development of the emerging technology. Konka, which recently announced its plans to enter the North American consumer electronics market in 2020, established its Micro LED initiative as a joint venture with Chongqing Liangshan Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., for a total of 2.55 billion yuan (more than $365 million). The funds will be used to purchase Micro LED related machinery/equipment, research and development, and increase production and sales of Micro LED related products.

Micro LED Research Institute
This Micro LED joint venture is a state-of-the-art institute that will carry out research and development of this cutting-edge display technology. It is an important step that will enable Konka to lead the way in the changing TV market and the broader consumer electronics market.

As a leader in digital home entertainment, Konka is a platform-based company with technology innovation as its core driving force. In the first half of 2019, the Group's R&D investment increased by 14.74% compared with the same period in 2018. Konka focused its innovation efforts on cutting-edge technologies such as 8K, AIOT and 5G, integrating next step technology into current product development. As reflected by this joint venture, Konka Group continues to make comprehensive efforts in emerging industries, new materials and semiconductors to achieve innovation in core technologies and drive the company's growth.

"Konka is a technology company investing in multiple growth platforms such as 8K, AIOT and 5G," said Scott Ramirez, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "This significant investment in Micro LED development shows our commitment to the technology and our belief that Micro LED will become the leading technology for ultra-high-quality consumer television."

Micro LED Is Poised to Help Industry Growth
Micro LED technology can be utilized in a range of advanced commercial and consumer display devices, and will become an important component of high-quality consumer TV in the near future. With successful development from this project, Konka is poised to be a global market leader in the next generation of high-quality TV technology.

As a self-luminous display technology, Micro LEDs do not require a backlight. They are superior in contrast to LCDs, have higher brightness than OLEDs and a longer lifetime. According to LEDinside research data, the market sales of Micro LED are expected to reach $694 million in 2022 and achieve $2.9 billion in 2025.

About Konka Group Co., Ltd.
Konka Group is a leading Chinese electronics manufacturer focused on creating high performance, high value digital home entertainment products. Key product categories include televisions, appliances, AIOT, mobile and wireless communications.  Established in 1980, publicly traded Konka Group Co Ltd (Shenzhen Stock Exchange) is China's first Sino-foreign joint consumer electronics enterprise. For the past 35 years, Konka has engineered and manufactured quality products, and since 1999 has been ranked among China's top 100 best companies. With total assets of $9.3 billion, Konka has more than 50 subsidiaries, hundreds of sales offices and more than 3,000 service outlets in more than 100 countries and regions. The "KONKA" brand is now valued at more than $15.1 billion.

SOURCE Konka North America, LLC