Since 2021, the advertising industry has continued to pick up, and the development of China's LCD digital signage market has returned to normalcy. According to statistics from RUNTO, in the first half of 2021, 516,000 LCD digital signage units were shipped in mainland China, a year-on-year increase of 98.6%.
In terms of scenarios, LCD digital signage is divided into indoor and outdoor LCD digital signage. Indoor LCD digital signage includes ladder media and non-ladder media products. Non-ladder media products include vertical, wall-mounted, horizontal digital signs, electronic water signs, poster machines, etc.
In the first half of the year, indoor LCD digital signage shipments accounted for 95.2%; outdoor LCD digital signage accounted for 4.8%, a year-on-year increase of 3.5 percentage points, mainly benefiting from the implementation of smart transportation projects.
Indoors: Market size nearly doubled
According to data from RUNTO, 491,000 indoor LCD digital signage units were shipped in the first half of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 92%. Among them, 402,000 units of non-elevator media products were shipped, a year-on-year increase of 86%. Driven by the strategic layout of Xinchao and Focus Media and the accelerated renovation and upgrading of old communities across the country, the market demand for ladder media products has rebounded significantly. In the first half of 2021, 89,000 elevator media products were shipped, a year-on-year increase of more than 1.2 times, and the market share increased by 2.6 percentage points year-on-year.
In the e-media product market, leading media companies have adjusted their strategic focus since the second half of 2019 to stop expansion and focus on site optimization, increasing the number of high-quality sites in first- and second-tier cities to increase publication rates. The results of strategic planning changes are gradually showing, and the demand for digital signage in Ladder Media is beginning to pick up.
In the non-elevator media product market, diversified forms are being integrated into the construction and upgrading of scene intelligence. In terms of product types, wall-mounted and vertical advertising machines are the mainstream in the indoor market. In the first half of 2021, vertical advertising machines accounted for 42.5% of the non-elevator advertising machine market shipments, and wall-mounted advertising machines accounted for 38.5%. The rankings of the two proportions have been exchanged. Due to increased demand from the commercial retail industry, the market share of electronic water signs increased by 4.3 percentage points year-on-year.
From the perspective of size structure, indoor LCD digital signage products with medium and large sizes have grown significantly. In the first half of 2021, driven by increased demand for retail applications, sales of products above 50 inches more than doubled year-on-year, and market share increased by 4.5 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, products in the 50-inch to 59-inch segment grew the fastest, with their market share increasing by 2.3 percentage points.
From the perspective of industry application structure, the pattern of indoor LCD digital signage in various scenarios has not changed much in the first half of 2021. The market is still dominated by the media and commercial retail fields, accounting for nearly 60%, a year-on-year increase of 4 percentage points.
Outdoor: The demand for smart cities is gradually released
