ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.—During the webOS Partner Summit 2023, LG Electronics has outlined its plans to become what it is calling “a media and entertainment platform company” and laid out some of the first steps in that transformation, which include significant investments in its webOS platform and smart TV operating system.
The company noted that since its launch on LG Smart TVs in 2014, webOS has become one of the most widely used smart TV platforms in the world. Beyond the 200 million LG TVs worldwide, webOS is now supporting several third-party TV brands in multiple markets.
Moving forward, LG plans to extend webOS to more third-party TV companies and expand the platform to other product categories. Within 3 years, LG expects to have over 300 million webOS-powered devices, the company said.
"LG is poised to transform into a media and entertainment platform company that delivers distinctive content and services that will enhance the lives of its customers," said Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Company, speaking at webOS Partner Summit 2023. "This transformation would not be possible without LG's decade of OLED TV leadership and the technological innovation of the webOS smart TV platform."
LG has already applied its platform webOS to a range of categories, including projectors, digital signage, and in-vehicle infotainment systems, LG reported.
Moreover, the number of third-party partner brands that have embraced webOS Hub, the webOS solution for third-party brands, has grown substantially, increasing from 20 just two years ago to over 300 today, LG said.
During that time, webOS Hub has undergone meaningful upgrades with the variety of content on offer expanding to include cloud gaming and OTT services, and new features arriving to enhance convenience and the overall user experience. Additionally, some of LG's partner TV brands have now introduced their own OLED TVs powered by webOS Hub.
As part of its strategy to expand the webOS platform ecosystem, LG acquired a majority stake of the U.S. advertising/content data analysis specialist, Alphonso, in 2021. Alphonso established subsidiaries in the U.K. and Greece last year, accelerating the global growth of its content service.
LG also said that it is set to make a substantial investment of KRW 1 trillion ($754,438,400) in its webOS business over the next five years in order to provide more content and services that cater to the diverse lifestyles and preferences of consumers. By boosting its competitiveness in content and services, LG believes it will further elevate the webOS user experience.
LG said that its strategic investment will be focused on broadening the range of content available via the webOS platform, boosting usability by innovating the UI and UX, and strengthening partnerships with content production companies on a global scale.
To date, LG has worked with its partners to bring new technologies to the platform, for gamers, sports fans or Gen Z users. Such is the integration of Sye, a Prime Video proprietary, low latency technology that will benefit LG customers who are fans of live streaming sports like Thursday Night Football. LG TVs deliver Netflix HDR streaming and have just opened the beta release for Netflix Games on TV and with the launch of the lifestyle screens for Gen Z the company worked with YouTube to make a Native Touch UX available for the app on models such as StanbyME.
LG is also strengthening innovation in the area of AI-based search and recommendations. The company plans to incorporate a voice user interface (VUI) feature into partner companies' apps, which will let webOS users easily control and navigate third-party content services with their voice, and enable swift and seamless content discovery.
Service usability will likewise be enhanced. LG Channels 3.0, LG's premium, free streaming service, boasts a growing selection of TV series and has a revamped UI that allows users to view more content options, including live channels and movies, on the screen, reducing the need to scroll. And thanks to the new UI, users can now easily explore what's on other channels without having to pause or navigate away from what they're watching.
Available in 27 countries worldwide, LG Channels currently offers over 3,000 channels and has over 50 million subscribers as of March 2023. In 2022 alone, the number of unique devices on which LG Channels was used increased by 75 percent, while viewing time rose by 57 percent, and usage-frequency surged to make the service one of the top-five most-accessed apps on the webOS platform.
