From 66 million in 2005, automobile sales around the world grew to 91 million in 2019, says Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA). This surge has primarily been led by countries such as China, Japan, India, Mexico, and Indonesia, which are experiencing a rapid advance in their economy. In the past few years, the analog displays in the vehicle dashboard, with needles and buttons, have been substantially replaced by digital screens. With the new generation of automotive displays on the rise, the demand for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens is going up.

Thus, with rising automobile sales, the OLED materials market is projected to witness an increase in its size, from $6,000.0 million in 2016 to $27,818.4 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 24.5% during the forecast period (2017–2023). To make an OLED screen, emissive layer (EML), cathodes, hole-injection layer (HIL), electron transport layer (ETL), substrates, encapsulation, anodes, and several other materials are required. Among these, substrates, which are either electrical insulators or semiconductors, registered the highest demand in the past, because they are heavily used to create diodes.

OLED screens help in creating more-realistic pictures than other prevalent technologies. Additionally, the materials are witnessing robust technological advancements, which have led to the creation of carbon nanotubes, grapheme, hybrid transparent electrodes, and silver nanowires. Manufacturers of OLED materials, including DowDuPont Inc., Bayer AG, LG Chem, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., Novaled GmbH, Merck KGaA, TCI America, Sumitomo Chemical Company Limited, Heraeus Holding GmbH, and Universal Display Corporation, are increasingly leveraging these improvements in the technology to develop better products, with the ultimate aim of increasing their customer base in places where they already have a robust sales network, as well as uncharted territories.

Around the world, Asia-Pacific (APAC) has been the largest OLED materials market, as regional countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and India, account for high production of consumer electronics and vehicles. Additionally, APAC is also where the population is growing the fastest, which is raising the demand for residential projects. At such settings, OLED is rapidly replacing the liquid crystal display (LCD) and LED technologies. Another reason for the growing demand for OLED lighting is that with a higher purchasing power of regional inhabitants than before, such expensive products are more affordable now.

Hence, as the disposable income of people rises, especially in developing countries, they will buy more consumer electronics and automobiles, and with all these fields undergoing technological advancements, the demand for OLED materials will keep rising.