Katarzyna Petru
The end of January 2026 brought long-awaited specifics from the LG camp. The Korean giant not only defended its position as a leader but also achieved the highest annual revenue in its history of 89.2 trillion won. This is the second consecutive year that the company has pushed the boundaries of its own capabilities, although it has not been without challenges in terms of profitability.
Massive growth in subscription profits?
The biggest surprise revealed by this report is the success of subscription services ‘on hardware’ (a model extremely popular in Asia). If you thought this was merely an industry curiosity, the numbers tell a different story. According to the official LG Newsroom, revenues from subscription-based models have risen by 29% and approached the level of 2.5 trillion won. For LG, this is a golden business opportunity. Instead of fighting for a customer every 5-10 years when selling a refrigerator, the company earns monthly from service fees, maintenance, and additional features in such a model. It is these stable revenues that have allowed them to cover gaps in poorer quarters.
The report also mentions revenues from the webOS platform in televisions, so one can speculate that, after all, a significant portion of the profits from the subscription model comes precisely from the operating system on LG televisions.
For the uninitiated: Every operating system manufacturer receives a commission for each subscription from streaming platforms (e.g., Netflix, Disney) purchased on their products. LG is therefore becoming not only a hardware producer but also a mediator in the world of VOD.
LG Display back in the black
According to a report by OLED-info, LG Display closed 2025 with revenue of 18 billion dollars and a net profit of 360 million dollars. This is a significant turnaround, considering that just recently the company was counting losses in the billions. How did this happen? LG Display went all in. The share of OLED panels in their revenue jumped to a record 61% (for comparison: in 2020 it was only 32%). The strategic goodbye to the production of large LCD panels for televisions in favour of more advanced organic matrices proved to be a bullseye.
Laptops more important than televisions?
This seems to be the most surprising technical speculation of this year. It turns out that it is not televisions that are the "apple of LG Display's eye" today. Let's look at the revenue breakdown according to various industry reports:
IT Panels (laptops, monitors, tablets): approx. 37%
Smartphones and other devices: approx. 36%
TV Panels: approx. 19%
Automotive: approx. 8%
This is a clear signal that the IT segment has become the main driving force of the company. The transition of the computer market to OLED and the popularisation of large organic displays in new cars (which we have also written about in the context of Samsung) is a true gold mine for LG Display.
The management of LG Display does not intend to rest on its laurels and is announcing significant investments in the development of OLED technology in the coming year. It seems that 2026 will be marked by the "oledisation" of everything. From our desks to dashboards in cars. However, LG has shown that it can earn money not just from glass production, but by being the centre of our digital lives, for which we are increasingly willing to pay in the form of a monthly subscription.
Source: LG Newsroom, OLED-info
