---
title: "From \"World Factory\" to Innovation High Ground, the Guangdong Power in the Restructured Global Home Appliance Landscape"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/277760196.md"
description: "In 2026, Guangdong's home appliance industry welcomed significant multinational cooperation, with TCL and Sony establishing a joint venture, and Skyworth taking over Panasonic's television business in the European and American markets. This marks a shift for Guangdong enterprises from an OEM model to brand ecosystem integration, promoting technological innovation and industrial chain collaboration, and redefining the global home appliance competition rules. Under policy guidance, leading enterprises in Guangdong, such as Midea and GREE, are gradually breaking away from low-price competition and shifting towards technology-driven value competition, enhancing the overall credibility and innovation capability of the industry"
datetime: "2026-03-04T09:59:06.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/277760196.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/277760196.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/277760196.md)
---

> Supported Languages: [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/277760196.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/277760196.md)


# From "World Factory" to Innovation High Ground, the Guangdong Power in the Restructured Global Home Appliance Landscape

At the beginning of 2026, two multinational collaborations shook the global home appliance industry: TCL established a joint venture with Sony with a 51% controlling stake, leading the full-chain operation of its home entertainment business; Skyworth fully took over the production, sales, and channel management of Panasonic's television business in the European and American markets. This is not merely an upgrade of the OEM model, but a landmark event where Guangdong home appliance companies, leveraging manufacturing scale, supply chain efficiency, and global operational capabilities, shift from "product output" to "brand ecosystem integration."

Behind this is a critical period during the 14th Five-Year Plan, where the domestic market is undergoing a deep transformation from price competition to value competition. The Guangdong home appliance industry is redefining the competitive rules of the global home appliance industry through technological deepening, model innovation, and industrial chain collaboration.

**From Price Wars to Value Awakening**

The internal competition dilemma in China's home appliance industry is essentially the inevitable result of a mismatch between supply and demand in a saturated market. Since the retail scale of the Chinese home appliance market (excluding 3C) peaked in 2019, industry growth has stagnated, and in recent years has fallen into a vicious cycle of "parameter upgrades and price declines": product functions continue to accumulate, but the market average price keeps dropping, resulting in a "volume increase and revenue decrease" situation, where excessive price competition directly undermines the momentum for structural upgrades in the industry.

The Guangdong home appliance industry has also long been trapped in homogeneous competition, with price wars becoming the main competitive means. This low-price competition not only compresses the profit margins of enterprises but also leads some small and medium-sized enterprises to cut corners to reduce costs, damaging the overall credibility of the industry. GREE's chairman Dong Mingzhu has previously stated: "Competition is very fierce. Many companies no longer focus on technological innovation breakthroughs, but simply cut corners and use price to deceive the market."

In August 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Action Plan for Law Enforcement Against Unfair Competition" and "Guidelines for Price Behavior," clearly prohibiting behaviors such as "selling below cost" and "malicious subsidies," setting red lines for rational competition in the industry. Under policy guidance, leading Guangdong enterprises represented by Midea and GREE took the lead in escaping the price trap and shifted towards technology-driven value competition.

Midea Group has invested over 100 billion yuan in R&D over the past decade, focusing on core component technologies such as compressors and motors, with its Meizhi compressors holding over 40% of the global market share, providing core support for product premiumization; GREE Electric focuses on improving air conditioning energy efficiency and tackling core components, achieving a core profit margin of 15.6% in 2024, with its photovoltaic direct-drive variable frequency air conditioning system capable of self-use and surplus electricity going online, winning premium space in overseas markets through technological advantages The founder of Skyworth Group, Huang Hongsheng, told reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily that on January 5, 2026, Skyworth Group will officially launch the "AI Living Room Revolution" internally, fully promoting AI home appliances. All smart TVs sold by Skyworth will have built-in AI services. "We hope that all home appliances will have 100% AI functionality in the future."

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, by 2025, the sales of related categories driven by the replacement of old consumer goods will reach 2.61 trillion yuan, benefiting 366 million people. In addition to promoting the release of consumption potential, the "national subsidy" also aids the transformation and upgrading of the home appliance industry. Previously, reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily learned from relevant manufacturers that benefiting from the implementation of the "national subsidy," sales of new functional products represented by smart fresh air conditioners, embedded refrigerators, integrated kitchen machines, and gas water heaters have seen significant growth.

At the beginning of spring 2026, Guangdong Province is promoting an important consumption-boosting action to expand the market for locally manufactured products—"Guangdong Goods Going Global," which is continuing to support "Guangdong Manufacturing" in conjunction with the "national subsidy" policy. The latest value-added tax invoice data released by the Guangdong Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation shows that during this year's Spring Festival holiday, with the support of policies such as the old-for-new "national subsidy," Guangdong quality products purchase, and prize invoices, as well as various cultural and tourism activities across the region, the Guangdong consumer market has flourished. The old-for-new "national subsidy" policy has driven a surge in the consumption of related goods, with daily retail sales revenue of household appliances such as sweeping robots increasing by 137.9% year-on-year, laying a foundation for consolidating and expanding the momentum of economic stability and improvement.

**New Chapter in Going Global: From Product Export to Brand Ecosystem Integration**

Global layout and the exploration of emerging markets have become a consensus on the value upgrade path for China's home appliance industry. Guangdong home appliance companies such as Midea, GREE, and Hisense have established numerous subsidiaries, R&D centers, and manufacturing bases worldwide. Midea has over 400 subsidiaries, 33 R&D centers, and 43 major manufacturing bases globally, with 17 R&D centers and 22 major manufacturing bases located overseas. Hisense has formed a global "5+1" regional center integrated layout for research, production, and sales across Europe, America, ASEAN, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and China. This global layout and localized operations not only enhance the international influence of Chinese home appliances but also strengthen their ability to respond to changes in the international market.

Trade friction remains a major risk faced by the Chinese home appliance industry in going global, such as the tariffs imposed by the United States on certain Chinese home appliance products in 2025. Against this backdrop, companies like Midea and TCL have established production bases in Southeast Asia, Europe, and other regions to achieve localized production and sales, effectively reducing tariff costs. To cope with international trade fluctuations, Midea has established multiple overseas production bases in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, and Brazil, implementing a "regional supply for regional demand" model. At the same time, Midea is promoting suppliers to go global, producing key components such as compressors and electronic controls overseas, with plans to establish a parallel supply chain in the first half of 2026 to further reduce geopolitical risks.

 Midea's Southeast Asia Production Base

In early 2026, TCL's deep cooperation with Sony, and Skyworth's collaboration with Panasonic, marked a new phase of "brand ecosystem integration" for Chinese home appliances going overseas. This cooperation model breaks through the traditional OEM/ODM outsourcing logic: TCL Electronics, through a controlling joint venture, leads the R&D, production, supply chain, and sales of Sony's home entertainment business, while Sony retains the brand and core picture quality technology; Skyworth fully takes over Panasonic's television production, sales, and channel operations in North America and Europe, allowing Panasonic to focus on core imaging technology R&D and quality control.

The cooperation model of "Chinese enterprise operations + Japanese brand technology" is a landmark innovation for the advancement of Chinese home appliance companies going overseas, and its value has been validated by the market. From the cooperation between TCL and Sony, TCL Electronics undertakes Sony's home entertainment business through a joint venture in which it holds 51%, leading the production, supply chain, and sales, while Sony retains the brand and core picture quality technology. This model leverages TCL's advantages in large-scale manufacturing, cost control, and channel operations, while quickly entering the high-end markets in Europe and America by utilizing Sony's accumulation in high-end picture quality technology and brand tone.

Skyworth's cooperation with Panasonic goes even further, as Skyworth fully takes over Panasonic's television production, sales, and channel operations in North America and Europe, allowing Panasonic to focus on core imaging technology R&D and quality control. This division of labor model deeply binds the operational efficiency of Chinese enterprises with the technical heritage of Japanese brands, promising to achieve a synergy effect of 1+1\>2\. From an industry trend perspective, as competition in the global home appliance market intensifies, the disassembly and integration of brand and technology, manufacturing and operations will become the norm. Chinese enterprises, leveraging a complete industrial chain system and efficient operational capabilities, are transitioning from "product going overseas" to "capability going overseas."

**Innovative Practices in Industrial Transformation**

Entering the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Guangdong has proposed to accelerate the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries this year, achieving greater breakthroughs in high-end, branding, intelligence, greening, and integration. A key aspect is that Guangdong aims to integrate and utilize high-quality resources from "chain master" enterprises, platform institutions, research institutes, industry associations, and productive service enterprises, focusing on the entire chain around the smile curve of "R&D innovation—manufacturing production—brand building—market sales," with AI as the core engine to promote precise matching of resource supply and demand, empowering the development of key industries, key products, key clusters, and key enterprises.

In the face of the global industrial chain restructuring, Guangdong's home appliance industry is navigating through the waves of global industrial competition with "chain masters" leading, technology empowering, and ecological collaboration as its oars. As the "ballast" of China's home appliance industry, Guangdong's home appliances not only carry the mission of transforming and upgrading traditional manufacturing but also bear the heavy responsibility of seizing high-end discourse power in the global industrial chain.

The core of global industrial chain restructuring is the redistribution of resources and the reshaping of the value chain. Relying on the leadership of "chain master" enterprises, Guangdong's home appliance industry is accelerating the integration of global high-quality resources, constructing a collaborative system for the entire chain of "R&D innovation—manufacturing production—brand building—market sales." Midea Group, as a "chain master" enterprise, drives its own and the industrial chain's move towards intelligence through acquisitions of international companies like Toshiba and KUKA, with over 20 billion yuan invested in digitalization, achieving a localization rate of over 85% for core components in its industrial robot production base For example, Wanma Co., Ltd., empowered by Midea, jointly tackled the specialized cable technology for KUKA robots and became KUKA's largest robot cable supplier in China by 2024, achieving import substitution and successfully entering the supply chains of several well-known automotive companies. This not only signifies Midea's transformation from a "world factory" to a "world brand," but also marks the leap of Guangdong's home appliance industry from the "manufacturing end" to the "branding end" in the global value chain.

Driven by "chain master" enterprises, the Guangdong home appliance industry is continuously strengthening its efforts around both ends of the smile curve. On the R&D side, companies like Midea and GREE are collaborating with research institutions to delve into cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, new energy, and the Internet of Things. Midea alone has invested over 100 billion yuan in industrial technology, robotics, and automation; on the branding side, "invisible champions" like Bear Electric are creating national brands through scenario-based innovation, with popular products like their stacked pots opening up new growth spaces in the existing market thanks to precise user demand insights.

Companies like Midea and Bear Electric are continuously growing, which in turn drives the aggregation of upstream and downstream supporting enterprises, giving rise to a complete and robust home appliance industry chain. Today, the world capital of white goods, Foshan, has over 1,000 industrial home appliance enterprises above designated size, including industry giants like Midea, Hisense Home Appliances, Galanz, and Xinbao, with revenues exceeding 10 billion or even hundreds of billions. This has formed an industrial ecosystem led by "chain masters," where large, medium, and small enterprises are interconnected and coexisting. The close proximity of enterprises facilitates the rapid flow of technology, information, and talent within the region, reducing production costs and significantly enhancing innovation speed, supporting the Guangdong home appliance industry in achieving breakthroughs in scale and efficiency from "nothing to something, and from something to excellence."

Guangdong has proposed using AI as a core engine to promote the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries, injecting strong momentum into the high-end transformation of the home appliance industry. In the traditional home appliance manufacturing process, AI technology is gradually replacing manual experience, achieving dual improvements in production efficiency and product quality. Sun Yingkai, the head of the research institute at Guangdong Vanward New Electric Co., Ltd., stated that the manufacturing industry should drive digital transformation through AI and intelligent manufacturing. Taking Vanward as an example, the company has proposed upgrading from a single product to an integrated full-link production and manufacturing service process that includes sets, scenarios, and ecological construction, aligning with the development direction of digitalization and intelligence. It emphasizes "digital empowerment," enhancing the level of industrial upgrading through digital and intelligent technologies, and establishing this as one of the company's core development strategies. Nowadays, the transition from machines replacing humans to intelligent equipment (robotic arms, controllers, sensors, etc.) to order-based management to a user-oriented rapid feedback improvement mechanism has significantly improved production efficiency and operational efficiency.

The application of AI technology is not limited to manufacturing but extends to the entire lifecycle management of products. In the R&D phase, AI algorithms can quickly simulate product performance, shortening the R&D cycle; in the sales phase, AI achieves precise marketing through big data analysis of user profiles; in the after-sales phase, AI customer service can respond to user needs in real-time, enhancing service efficiency. Additionally, Shenzhen technology companies provide AI and IoT technology support for home appliance enterprises, placing Guangdong's home appliance products at the forefront of national intelligence levels. By 2025, the revenue of Guangdong's ultra-high-definition video industry cluster is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan. The rise of this technology-intensive industry provides technical support for the intelligent upgrade of the home appliance industry and positions Guangdong's home appliances at a technological high ground in the global high-end market Planning: Wang Ying

Coordination: Ma Jianzhong, Chen Yangkai

Reporting: Nandu·Wancai News reporter Kong Xueshao

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