China's DVD-Video Player Market In Full Bloom

China's DVD-Video player market suddenly surged forward at the end of the 20th century. On December 15, 1999, the DVD-Video player alliance formed by China's noted DVD-Video player enterprises including Shinco, Idall, Panda and Shanghai Guangdian announced a ""new sunlight action"" to reduce DVD-Video player prices from 2,000 yuan (US$241) to 1,680 yuan. The Dongding Company followed suit, and another enterprise, Kebigao Electric Company, in Shenzhen cut its DVD-Video player prices even lower to 1,598 yuan/set. Experts agree that the present DVD-Video player prices are acceptable and predict that the DVD-Video player market will be in full bloom this year. In 1997, when Japan's DVD-Video player products first entered the Chinese market, there were few buyers because of the high prices and fewer discs. However, the DVD-Video player market has burgeoned since with the sales volume approaching some 100,000 sets in 1998. China's DVD-Video player market has been occupied almost by foreign products. Statistics show that Philips, Matsushita, Sony and Pioneer have held 70% of the market share. Included is Philips, whose the market shares had reached 25%. In 1998, Chinese-made DVD-Video players began to squeeze into and survive the market full of foreign products. Since the beginning of this year, Chinese enterprises have joined hands in advance. In early August, 1999, four Chinese enterprises, Shinco, Shanghai Guangdian, Panda and Guangdong Wyan, announced the establishment of a DVD-Video player alliance in Shanghai to expand the scale and efficiency of production. On August 18, 1999, ten enterprises including Shinco and BBK jointly set up the China Digital Optic Disc Technology Alliance with the support of the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Information Industry. Its aim is to enter into cooperation and use the technology advantage in the development of high-density digital laser optic disc systems. On December 1, 1999, China's largest VCD player enterprises, Idall and Shinco, announced their alliance to jointly develop a new generation of DVD-Video players. Meanwhile, the DVD optic disc market expanded swiftly with the price dropping from 100 yuan/piece to 40 yuan/piece. China has built more than 20 legal DVD-Video player optical disc production lines in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other cities. Each production line is able to produce three million to five million discs a year. The batch production of discs will support the DVD-Video player sales boom. According to authoritative sources, the DVD-Video player is entering Chinese families with the sales volume reaching one million in 1999. It is predicted that China's sales volume will amount to eight million in 2000 possibly to exceed the United States, Japan and European countries to become the world's largest DVD-Video player market in five years. Source: Asia Pulse