Shunde District in Foshan which was Bruce Lee’s ancestral home dusts off kung fu heritage and Cantonese cuisine. It seeks to be known by the world once again as China#39;s capital of home appliances. Sales in Shunde-made household appliances reached 420 billion yuan in 2022 with nearly 400 manufacturers above designated size.
The G105 highway connecting Shunde and the nearby city Zhongshan is often called the golden corridor of consumer appliances because the factories cluster on both sides of the road. Glanz, Bear, Enaiter... are just among the many popular brands there, and Midea, a name that is known by every Chinese family.
In 1968, He Xiangjian, the founder of the company led a group of 23 Beijiao residents to start the business with only 5,000 yuan. They used to make whatever the market needed from plastic and rubber balls to auto parts and power generators. In 1980, Midea started to focus on making electric fans thus entering the household appliance industry.
As China’s first listed township company, Midea went through shareholding reform and was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1993. Midea’s business took off from there and joined the big league as a Fortune Global 500 home appliance giant. 50 years after it was founded, the annual income of Midea has grown to 344 billion yuan in 2022 and its net profit almost reached 30 billion yuan with 200 subsidiaries globally.
Midea Group carries a diverse range of brands under its umbrella including globally recognized household names like WAHIN and Little Swan. Japan’s Toshiba Home Appliances Group was acquired by Midea Group with a controlling 80.1% stake in 2016. Midea has stayed true to its commitment to technology innovation pouring over 50 billion yuan into Ramp;D in the past 5 years. As of August, it has nearly 70,000 PCT patent applications investment in Ramp;D helps Midea transform from Industry 2.0 to 4.0. It has five “Lighthouse Factories” so far representing the world’s leading digital manufacturing technologies in which smart home becomes a core business in Midea.
However, Midea’s ambition doesn#39;t stop there. The home appliance maker has ventured into multiple sectors such as automation, robotics building technology, and energy storage. These new ventures brought home nearly 90 billion yuan in sales revenue in 2022. Looking beyond the domestic market, Midea’s one last trump card is to go global. Its 18 global production centers and over 30,000 employees in more than 200 locations generated an annual revenue of more than 140 billion yuan in 2022 accounting for more than 40 percent of its total revenue.
Midea’s strategy of global Ramp;D with 20 worldwide innovation centers has also sustained the rapid development of its global business. In the new round of the industrial revolution, Midea is going above and beyond from a home appliance firm to a leading high-technology company. You may know it just as an air-conditioner brand now. But don’t get too surprised when one day your household robots are also made by Midea.
Looking at where it came from and what it has been through, you’ll be able to see what makes Midea the giant it is today. It is the consumer-centric approach that drives it to constantly explore and invent to meet the ever-changing demand of consumers.
策划统筹:于晓娜 丁青云
内容统筹:谭婷
执行统筹:黄欣然
设计统筹:林军明
视频统筹:白宇航
监制:施诗
英文审核amp;配音:李莹亮
海外运营监制: 黄燕淑
海外运营内容统筹: 张然
运营支持:曾静娇
审校:强燕 黄志明
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