All-Web sales strategy aims at TV Goliaths

Domestic digital television maker Digital Device Inc. will do something drastic this month to reduce its prices: it will shut down all its regular outlets, both storefronts and department-store corners. The company has instead begun selling its plasma display panel television sets and liquid-crystal display sets online, the company president, Lee Sang-hoon, said yesterday. Digital Device’s 42-inch PDP sets cost 1.99 million won ($2,000) while 37-inch LCD sets cost 1.69 million won. Both prices are at least 1 million won cheaper than that of similar products by Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. In only four days since the Web site went online, the company sold 100 million won worht of flat-screen sets, Mr. Lee said. “I can say that nobody knows more about TVs than I do, even though I’m a seller, not a technician,” he said. What lies behind his confidence is his career as an overseas dealer of Daewoo television sets, from 1987 to 1994. When he established Digital Device in 1996, the company sold only glass-tube television sets, These days, it has foresaken the bulkier tube sets to focus on manufacturing flat-screen televisions. The company exported $30 million in sets in 2004, a feat that earned it a prize from the government. But Mr. Lee said he realized that his company could never win in a head-to-head competition with major Korean conglomerates. Doing everything online was his alternative to tackling Samsung. If the bargain prices still don’t satisfy customers, they can also double the after-sales service period to two years for an extra 10 to 15 percent of the price tag ― an offer he hopes will disarm customers skeptical about quality. If the company attains 500 billion in sales around 2008 (it generated 60 billion won in sales last year), Mr. Lee plans to give the sets a unique brand name, like Sony’s Bravia and Samsung’s Pavv. by Kim Chang-woo