BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd., or Jingdongfang (), is a Chinese
electronic components
An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are n ...
producer founded in April 1993. Its core businesses are interface devices, smart IoT systems and smart medicine and engineering integration.
BOE is one of the world's largest manufacturers of
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
,
OLED
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light ...
s and
flexible display
A flexible display or rollable display is an electronic visual display which is flexible in nature, as opposed to the traditional flat screen displays used in most electronic devices. In recent years there has been a growing interest from num ...
s.
History
In April 1993, Beijing Oriental Electronics Group Co., Ltd was founded by Wang Dongsheng. In 1997, it listed B shares on the
Shenzhen Stock Exchange
The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE; ) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shenzhen, in the People's Republic of China. It is one of three stock exchanges operating independently in Mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exch ...
. In 2001, Beijing Oriental Electronics was renamed BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. BOE acquired
SK Hynix
SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's third-largest semiconductor company. ...
's STN-LCD and OLED businesses for US$22.5 million. Issued additional A shares in Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2003, BOE acquired SK Hynix's Hydis
flat-panel display businesses for US$380 million.
In 2009, BOE Energy Technology Co., Ltd was founded to enter the
photovoltaics
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercial ...
industry. In 2010, BOE acquired Suzhou Gaochuang Electronics' Taipei Display Research Center and AIO Manufacturing Plant.
BOE also acquired K-Tronics for an undisclosed amount.
In 2011, BOE established a Japan branch and R&D center in Tokyo. In 2012, BOE established an American branch and R&D center in Santa Clara in Silicon Valley, California. In 2014, BOE established a subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2015, BOE acquired
OASIS International Hospital.
In 2016, BOE acquired automotive displays maker Varitronix for RMB60.1 million. It set up a subsidiary in New Delhi, India.
In 2017, BOE established its Middle East Branch in Dubai and set up a subsidiary based in São Paulo, Brazil. BOE also announced its plan to build a hospital in Chengdu which will be opened in late 2020. BOE announced a long-term agreement with
Universal Display Corporation, UDC will supply phosphorescent OLED materials to BOE. According to IHS Markit, BOE became shipped the most displays larger-than-9-inch for tablets, notebook PCs and monitors. However
LG Display still lead in terms of area shipment.
In 2018, BOE acquired
SES-imagotag
SES-imagotag is a specialist in electronic shelf labeling systems and physical retail founded in 1992. The group designs and markets all of its system's components (software, radio-frequency infrastructure, labels and mountings).
History
Cre ...
for €200 million. BOE formed a joint venture with
Kopin Corporation and
Olightek for OLED micro-displays manufacturing. BOE established subsidiares in Jakarta, Indonesia and Johannesburg, South Africa. According to Sigmaintell Consulting, BOE overtook LG Display as the world's largest LCD TV and monitor producer with 54.3 million TV panels and 37.3 million monitor panels shipped.
The
Huawei Mate 20 Pro is the first flagship tier smartphone with an AMOLED sourced from BOE (also sourced from LG Display).
In 2019, BOE formed a joint venture with Rohinni for
MicroLED and
mini LED backlighting manufacturing.
Hisense
Hisense Group is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Televisions are the main products of Hisense, and it is the largest TV manufacturer in China by market ...
announced its U9E TVs featuring dual LCD panels which Hisense said exceeds OLED TVs in brightness, color gamut and color accuracy. Its panels are produced by BOE. The
Huawei Mate X scheduled for release in Q4 2019 reportly has a foldable OLED from BOE. According to IHS Markets, BOE had the second highest marketshare of the smartphone OLED panel market at 5.9%, only behind
Samsung Displays.
BOE will also surpass LG Display as the world's largest
flat-panel display producer.
And BOE has partnered with
Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smart ...
to research cameras under OLEDs. BOE is reportedly in talks to replace
LG Display and Tianma as OLED supplier for
LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest ''chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered ...
smartphones in 2020. BOE also became an OLED supplier for
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...
beginning in 2021 for the
iPhone.
On February 1, 2022, the company announced they had developed the world’s fastest gaming monitor with a 500Hz refresh rate. The
prototype 27-inch monitor has a resolution of 1080p. In 2023, the company was reportedly predicted to become the largest supplier of OLED display panels for the Apple iPhone 15 series according to Ming-Chi Kuo, a Taiwanese Apple analyst at TF International Security.
Competitive position
In 2021,
WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishin ...
’s annual
World Intellectual Property Indicators World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) is an annual statistical report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The publication provides an overview of the activity in the areas of patents, utility models, trademarks ...
report ranked BOE Technology's number of patent applications published under the
PCT System as 7th in the world, with 1,892 patent applications being published during 2020.
This position is down from their previous ranking as 6th in 2019 with 1,864 applications.
Operations
BOE has manufacturing facilities located in Beijing, Hefei, Chengdu, Chongqing,
Fuzhou, Mianyang,
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...
,
Kunming
Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headqua ...
,
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trad ...
, Ordos and
Gu'an. BOE has global marketing and R&D centers in 19 countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, India, Russia, Brazil and Dubai.
References
External links
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{{Electronics industry in China
Computer hardware companies
Electronics companies of China
Multinational companies headquartered in China
Manufacturing companies based in Beijing
Electronics companies established in 1993
Manufacturing companies established in 1993
Chinese companies established in 1993
Chinese brands
Government-owned companies of China