LG Electronics’ projectors sweep world’s No. 3 golf market

Screen golf centers have become another gold mine for LG Electronics Inc. thanks to Koreans’ unwavering golf enthusiasm, which has made the world’s 29th-most-populous country the third-largest golf market in the world.

According to global display industry tracker PMA Research on Thursday, the South Korean electronics giant commanded 73% of the 4K UHD resolution commercial projector market on home turf in the first quarter of this year. In 2022, its share was 59%.

The company has remained top in the Korean 4K UHD commercial projector market since the first launch of its ProBeam projector series in 2020.

The main customers of the projector are screen golf centers in Korea, and Koreans’ love for golf has led to the proliferation of the screen golf market in recent years, boding well for LG Electronics’ projector business, which is a core part of its commercial display business.  

Screen golf is a virtual simulation game played indoors, and it is very popular in Korea where it is expensive to play golf at outdoor golf courses due to their scarcity.  

According to Korea’s National Tax Service, screen golf center operators in the country more than doubled to 8,093 in May this year from 2017.

PMA projects that the Korean 4K UHD projector market will grow more than threefold to $83.1 million in 2027 from 2022 thanks to the increasing number of golf enthusiasts in the country, which already taken grip on the global golf scene with its surplus of elite professional golfers.

South Korea is also the third-largest on-course adult golfer market in 2023, with 5.4 million people enjoying the game, according to a news release by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (The R&A) last week.

Korea's golfing population accounts for about 10% of the country’s entire population. The country is just behind Japan with 8.1 million and Canada with 5.6 million. England and Germany came fourth and fifth, respectively, according to the R&A.

MORE ROOM TO GROW FOR COMMERCIAL PROJECTORS

As LG Electronics has picked commercial displays as one of its key business-to-business products, the company is expected to actively take advantage of Koreans’ golf craze to cement its leadership in the country’s commercial projector market.

The B2B is also one of the three pilar next-growth engines that will lead LG Electronics’ transformation into a “smart life solution” company from a traditional appliance maker, the company’s chief executive officer said last month.

Earlier this year, LG Electronics announced that it will offer customers with LG ProBeam projectors its B2B management solution, the same software only provided to its digital signage display owners before.  

LG ProBeam projectors produce a 100-inch display even with a very short distance between the projector lens and the screen, such as 2 meters apart.

It is touted for generating vivid and lively images even on a 300-inch screen, according to the company.

The company has supplied ProBeam projectors to major screen golf operators in Korea, including FullSwing Golf and Golfzon Park.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.