Semiconductor Business in the 4th Industrial Revolution Era
Young (Hwa) Kwon
Publisher: Knowledge Platform
Summary
Recently, the semiconductor industry in Korea has been gaining global attention. In the past, it was difficult for Korea to start semiconductor businesses, which was almost barren. Up until 40 years ago, almost all conditions, including the necessary manpower, experience and industrial ecosystem as well as technology, to do a semiconductor business were at their worst. Nevertheless, as a result of many people\'s bloody efforts, Korea has now emerged as one of the top powerhouses in memory semiconductors. It\'s really amazing and I can say it\'s almost a miracle. I think this is a good example not only for many countries, but also for many companies, and this is the reason why many people are interested in learning the success stories of Korean semiconductor industry. However, Korea is still not the best power in the semiconductor industry. This is because the market for system semiconductors is about twice as large as that of memory semiconductors, and Korea is still very weak in this sector. The memory semiconductor sector was able to grow significantly thanks to bold investments and bleeding efforts by large companies, but many companies have been negligent in the system semiconductor sector due to various reasons. Moreover, with various support from the Chinese government, Chinese semiconductor companies are not only growing brilliantly, but also pose a great threat to Korean semiconductor companies. This is because China is growing rapidly in the system semiconductor field and they are gradually speeding up their pursuit in the memory semiconductor field. What\'s fortunate is that Korea has recently been gradually continuing the growth in the system semiconductor sector. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but if we can concentrate on our efforts just like the memory semiconductor field, I believe that the system semiconductor sector will have a bright future. We are now facing a turbulent era called the 4th Industrial Revolution. Therefore, much of our lives are expected to be very different from what we have been doing. And as the 4th industrial revolution progresses slowly, the demand for semiconductors is gradually growing. For example, new markets are opening up little by little such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things), Autonomous car, and Smart industry. Therefore, it can be said that the outlook for the semiconductor industry is brighter than ever. Furthermore, it is hard to expect the development of the 4th industry without the continuous development of semiconductor technology. As such, semiconductor technology can be said to be an essential driving force to lead 4th industry. Korean economy is now heavily dependent on the semiconductor industry. Since the semiconductor industry accounts for about 20% of the Korean economy, Korean economy is difficult without the growth of the semiconductor industry. Therefore, the government has recently set up various support policies to foster the semiconductor industry. The main characteristic of the semiconductor market these days is that capital is gradually playing an important role in the growth of companies. This is because it creates competitiveness in the market depending on how much capital can be invested in scaling technology ahead of other companies. But the problem is that the cost of investment in scaling technology is increasing astronomically. As a result, companies with capital will invest more capital in scaling technology to gain a market leadership as well as competitiveness, while companies with no capital will be forced to flee the market further. In addition, it tends to increase in the number of companies that is acquired, or go bankrupt by other companies with capital. Meanwhile, most of the existing semiconductor related books focused on technology. I think that it has resulted in people staying away from the semiconductor industry. In fact, for ordinary people who know little about semiconductors, semiconductor technology has many parts that are difficult to understand from the terminology itself. Therefore, this book tried to explain the contents as easy as possible by excluding technical fields, so that even ordinary people could easily understand the industry. Of course, technology is an important part of the semiconductor industry because technology development is leading the industry, but a business is also a factor that cannot be ignored. No matter how good the technology is, the semiconductor industry cannot be maintained unless the transaction is made as a business. Therefore, this book tried not to focus on technology, but to look at the semiconductor market thoroughly from a business perspective. For reference, I worked for a semiconductor related company for about 10 years in the past and received a doctorate in a semiconductor business. I also published 20 papers on a semiconductor business. In this process, I was able to gain deep knowledge about a semiconductor business. However, I wrote the book with the thought that publishing a book would give more people a chance to read because there was a limit as a paper. Therefore, the contents of the book were organized based on the business status of major semiconductor companies and the overall situation of the semiconductor industry. I hope that it will help employees in the semiconductor field, students studying in the semiconductor field, and people interested in the semiconductor field understand the semiconductor business. Finally, in the appendix, 2 interviews were conducted. I think readers will be able to feel the vivid voices of the site in the semiconductor business because it was conducted targeting people who are working in the field of the semiconductor industry.
Available since: 11/22/2021.
