CES 2021 to be held entirely online for the first time
Samsung vs. LG, Hyundai Motors and the three mobile carriers are only observing
Replay of the exhibition and lectures available until February 15th


CES 2021, the world's largest consumer electronics show, will be held entirely online for the first time from Monday, the 11th to Thursday, the 14th, local time.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is an event held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA every January since 1967, hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

The previous CES 2020 was held from January 7 to 10, 2020, before the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States on January 21, 2020, and proceeded normally, unlike similar-sized events such as MWC (Spain, February), Computex (Taiwan, June), and IFA (Germany, September).

CES 2021 was also impacted by COVID-19. First, the number of participating companies was significantly reduced. The previous event featured over 4,000 companies. This time, fewer than 2,000 companies participated.

There's no large exhibition hall. True to the event's slogan, "All-Digital," CTA collaborated with Microsoft (MS) to ensure exhibition viewing, business meetings, and other activities take place on Microsoft's platform.

Additionally, a live anchor desk comprised of leading tech media outlets will be provided to guide attendees through key exhibitions and lectures scattered throughout the event.

All events will be subtitled in 16 languages through AI automatic translation. Additionally, participants can revisit the exhibition and lectures until Monday, February 15th, and communicate with participating companies.

◇ Conferences are more accessible than exhibitions

Unlike exhibitions, where accessibility has been reduced due to a reduced number of participating companies and the distance inherent in non-face-to-face events, the accessibility of conferences, which can be accessed and replayed from anywhere in the world, has significantly increased.

The keynote speeches were composed of the following: Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg's '21st Century Framework, 5G', CTA CEO Gary Shapiro's and CES Vice President Karen Chupka's '2021 Technology Industry Outlook', and General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra's 'All-Electrified Mobility Strategy'.

Additionally, along with AMD CEO Lisa Su's 'High-Performance Computing Vision' and MS President Brad Smith's 'Considerations on Technology Ethics in the Digital Age', CEOs of Best Buy, Mastercard, MediaLink, and Walmart will share insights on the consumer market. Including Keynote, 187 conferences from Hisense, LG Electronics, Bosch, Samsung Electronics, and others will be held sequentially over four days.

◇ Korea's two major home appliance companies lead the exhibition

CES, often called the "China Electronics Show," was an event with a significant number of Chinese companies participating. However, due to the escalating US-China trade conflict and the limited promotional impact of non-face-to-face events, the number of Chinese companies participating in CES 2021 has plummeted to 205. This represents an 85% drop compared to CES 2020 (1,368 companies).

As an event held in the United States, the number of American companies participating in CES is always the largest.

Despite a significant reduction in the number of participating companies (560 compared to 1,933 at CES 2020), the United States still held on to its top spot. South Korea surpassed China to record the second-largest number of participating companies, with 338 participating companies, a similar number to last year's event (390).

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, fiercely competing in the global home appliance market, plan to showcase a variety of products at this event. Their collaboration is expected to be particularly strong in the mini LED TV segment. Samsung Electronics plans to emphasize its technological prowess with its 'Neo QLED' TV, and LG Electronics plans to emphasize its technological prowess with its 'LG QNED' TV.

LG Electronics is also expected to release a video of a full-fledged rollable smartphone, while Samsung Electronics will unveil the new Galaxy S21 series on the 15th at the Galaxy Unpacked event. In the automotive sector, Samsung Electronics, which owns Harman as a subsidiary, and LG Electronics, which has partnered with Magna, are expected to showcase their respective electric vehicle technologies. They are also expected to unveil home robots.

◇ Hyundai Motor and the three major mobile carriers did not participate, while 97 startups participated.

Hyundai, which garnered attention at CES 2020 for its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) demonstration, will not be attending, citing minimal promotional impact. The three major mobile carriers (SKT, KT, and LGU+) have decided to only allow their employees to attend, citing the limitations of demonstrating 5G services through video due to the online nature of the event.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has opened a 'K-STARTUP' center and is supporting the promotion of 97 domestic startups. Startups are one of the 11 major sectors of CES 2021 (△5G & IoT, △Advertising & Entertainment & Content, △Automobiles, △Blockchain, △Health & Wellness, △Home & Family, △Immersive Entertainment, △Product Design & Manufacturing, △Robots & Machine Learning, △Sports, △Startups).

Among the participating startups, Luple and SOFTPV won Innovation Awards for their portable light therapy and 3D solar cells, respectively. M2S, in particular, won the Best of Innovation award for its VR eye care solution. Other domestic companies that have received these awards include Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to establish a separate website linked to the Case Startup Center to provide information on participating startups to overseas buyers and investors.

“CES 2021 will make history as the first-ever 100% digital show,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO of CTA. “Nearly 2,000 brands from around the world will participate in the event, showcasing the latest trends and innovations in 5G, AI, digital health, smart cities, mobility and more.”