In the arena of China's home appliance market, the air conditioning industry has always been the focus of attention. We often hear the names of air conditioning brands such as Gree, Midea, and Haier, but is this market divided by several giants, or is there an emerging force rising? Today, we're going to dissect this with the help of the latest data.
The head enterprise "Iron Triangle"].
First of all, we have to admit a fact - the head companies in China's air conditioning market are really powerful. According to the data of 2022, the three major brands of Midea, Gree, and Haier occupy a total of more than 70% of the market share, which can be called the "iron triangle". From 50 million units in 2003 to 200 million units today, they have been leading the market. It can also be seen from the list of air conditioning brand competitiveness released by Ipsos that the status of these three brands is unshakable. In particular, Midea's revenue growth rate in 2022 is as high as 17%, and its online market share will reach 3158%, and offline is as high as 3352%, which has been in the leading position in the market for many years. Obviously, the strategy of channel layout on the "starting trend" of Midea is quite successful.
Rising star "challenge the old brand].
However, even so, second-tier and emerging brands are not willing to quit the arena. Oaks, TCL, Hisense and other brands are narrowing the gap with the top three through the application of new technologies, refined channel management and new market development. According to the retail monitoring data of Aowei cloud network, the market share of Oaks and TCL ranks fourth and sixth in the industry respectively, and the market share of TCL will rise to 4 in 202254%。Hisense relies on its deep cultivation in the sinking market,**The market share has increased significantly,Reached11.07%, ahead of Changhong and TCL with a market share of about 1%. However, with the sudden rise of brands such as Xiaomi and Hisense, traditional home appliances are gradually developing in the direction of intelligence and personalization, and market competition is becoming more intense. For example, Xiaomi, with its smart home appliance product line and Internet brand attributes, has begun to eat into market share and pose challenges.
Fierce market competition is becoming more and more diversified].
Of course, the competition in the air conditioning market is much more than that. In this context, many second- and third-tier brands, such as Konka, Aucma, Meibo, etc., have begun to pay attention to the construction of production and research bases, grasp emerging e-commerce channels, and continuously improve the quality of products and services to achieve their own breakthroughs.
So how do leading companies maintain their competitive advantage? It's easy to see that they usually focus on innovation and service. Midea Air Conditioner focuses on technological leadership and structural upgrading, Gree has strengthened the cooperation between the online market and JD.com, and continues to invest in the live broadcast business, while Haier has strengthened its market competitiveness in an all-round way through measures such as product focus and retail network expansion.
The ultimate question: Giants or equals? 】
We can see that although the leading companies still have the advantage, the challengers have not given up their willingness to compete for the market. Industry research predicts that although the overall size of China's air conditioning market may remain stable in 2024, the leading companies will focus on profits while leaving room for other brands to develop. So, is China's home appliance market a giant or evenly divided? My answer is, "Both." While the head enterprises are stable, the "dragon fight" of emerging and second-tier brands has made the air conditioning market more diversified and active. And this, for consumers, is undoubtedly a good thing. Because in the end, it will be everyone who pursues a high-quality life. The home appliance market is by no means as simple as the monopoly of giants, but a stage where a hundred flowers bloom and each shows its ability. In the future, we have reason to believe that with the continuous advancement of technological innovation and consumption upgrading, China's home appliance market will usher in a more exciting development situation.