80% of human information acquisition comes from vision. In the era of the Internet of Everything, everything has a screen and interface, from mobile phones to computers, from various terminals such as car displays to VR glasses at the entrance to the metaverse. Behind these interfaces is the panel (semiconductor display). Panels, like chip semiconductors, are essential basic components for various electronic products. They are also important products that have been stuck in the past. "Lack of cores and lack of screens" has become the epitome of the embarrassing and helpless reality of the Chinese industry.

In the past, we always talked about "lack of cores and less screens". Nowadays, the hidden pain of "lack of cores" still exists, but "lack of screens" has completely become a thing of the past. This is because a number of outstanding panel companies have emerged in China over the past 30 years. We know that the panel industry is an extremely money-burning and involution industry. A single production line requires tens of billions of investment. If you invest in the wrong route or fail to invest timely and continuously, you may be out of business, and the huge investment will be wasted. . So why should we develop the panel industry?

From 2001 to 2006, six companies including South Korea's Samsung and LG and Taiwan's AUO and Chunghwa Picture Tubes held 53 "crystal meetings" with the main purpose of controlling panel prices and supply. At that time, the cost of panels At one time, it accounted for 80% of the total cost of LCD TVs.

This also makes the downstream Chinese home appliance companies complain endlessly. However, at that time, the panel technology and production lines were in the hands of Korean and Japanese companies, and Chinese companies could only suffer a loss. Previously, China imported panels with a total value of hundreds of billions of yuan every year, second only to integrated circuits, oil and iron ore. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, my country imported 1.95 billion LCD panels in 2007, worth US$40.75 billion.

A more realistic consideration is that domestic independent control of the panel industry can reduce the cost and improve the competitiveness of the consumer electronics industry downstream of the panel. The panel industry has brought profound changes to many domestic industries. It can be said that without the rise of China's panel industry, our mobile phones, TVs, and computers might be twice as expensive as they are now.

As for why we should take the road of independent research, it is because we have learned painful lessons.