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| People look around the CES 2022 exhibition hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, in this January 2022 file photo. Courtesy of Consumer Technology Association |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Some 550 Korean tech firms are set to enrich this year's CES, which will return later this week at a full scale for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry officials, Monday.
Their presence at the world's most influential tech event will also enable Korea to account for the second-highest number of participating companies there following the U.S.
Although most Chinese companies will be absent from the exhibition again this year in the wake of China's travel restrictions and trade war with the U.S., the event will see the return of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and various other global enterprises that were absent from the previous year's event due to the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The event's organizer expects the number of participants this year to soar 40 percent from 2022 to a record-high 100,000. In 2021, the CES was held online due to the pandemic. Last year's event was also shortened to three days, because of the coronavirus variant.
Under this year's slogan of "Be in it," more than 3,100 companies from over 170 countries are ready to showcase their cutting-edge technologies in Las Vegas, Nevada, for four days from Thursday (local time) to Sunday. They will present upgraded technologies related to mobility, the metaverse and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards.
AMD CEO Lisa Su, John Deere CEO John May, BMW Group Chairman Oliver Zipse and Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares are also among the keynote speakers at this year's event.
The Korean participants that will vie with the global tech giants include Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG and Lotte groups and HD Hyundai, as well as 500 small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.
Samsung Electronics plans to showcase various innovative home appliances and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, under the theme, "Bringing Calm to Our Connected World." Although Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be absent from the event, Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and the conglomerate's multiple top-level executives, as well as the CEOs of its affiliates, will attend.
SK Group's eight affiliates and their 10 U.S. partners will display some 40 eco-friendly products and technologies, including those related to electric vehicle batteries, hydrogen, highly-efficient semiconductors, energy production with waste, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and small modular reactors (SMRs). SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is expected to visit his company's exhibition booth to promote the conglomerate's efforts for carbon neutrality.
Hyundai Mobis will represent Hyundai Motor Group at CES 2023, due to the absence of Hyundai Motor which introduced its robotics business at the previous year's event through a presentation delivered by Executive Chair Chung Euisun. Hyundai Mobis plans to disclose purpose-built vehicle concept models for the first time at the company's largest-ever exhibition booth.
LG Electronics will present its upgraded OLED TV, while LG Innotek will showcase a new camera module designed exclusively for self-driving cars.
HD Hyundai, which changed its name from Hyundai Heavy Industries Group late last year, will participate in the CES again this year, following its debut at the event in 2022. HD Hyundai President Chung Ki-sun will introduce the shipbuilding group's "ocean transformation" vision, with the aim of fundamentally changing the group's shipbuilding, oil refining and machinery businesses.
Lotte Group will introduce its metaverse platform and mobility and healthcare businesses at the exhibition booths to be operated by Lotte Data Communication and Lotte Healthcare.
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