DISPLAY equipment firms, from LED screen vendors, projector makers to high-end LCD companies, are seeking to expand their presence in the Chinese market after the Shanghai World Expo closes because the event offers them a big stage to show off the latest technologies.

Multinational and domestic display firms, which provide equipment and applications at the Expo, have established research centers and show rooms as well as cooperate with domestic partners to seek a bigger pie, industry officials said.

Shenzhen Retop LED Display Co, which provided the world's biggest 10,000-square-meter LED (light emitting diode) screen during the Expo's opening ceremony, forecast its revenue for exports and the domestic market to be evenly divided within one or two years, compared with a 70 percent-to-30 percent ratio last year.

Retop, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed Elec-Tech International Co, expected to generate a revenue of 300 million yuan (US$44.3 million) to 500 million yuan in 2010, more than double last year's level, according to Stone Shi, the firm's chairman.

"The domestic market demand (for LED) will be boosted after the Expo," said Shi. "We have started to get orders in market segments in (sports) events, outdoors advertising of commercial buildings ... in China."

To tap into the market, Retop will open a 2,000-square-meter show room to promote the latest display technologies "within one or two months" in Shanghai.

The Expo also has created awareness and interest in display technologies on HD (high definition) and 3D, said J.P. Tanghe, senior vice president of Belgium-based Barco.

The firm, which provides over 300 projectors and other display devices for 16 Expo pavilions, forecast its Chinese revenue to more than double within three years to 2 billion yuan in 2012, or 20 percent of Barco's global income.