From decline to prosperity, Japanese home appliances have "turned over a new leaf" in the Chinese market

Japanese home appliances were once a symbol of an era. With rapid technological innovation and iteration, they had a huge market share and once became the representative of high-quality and high-performance products. Many domestic brands could not catch up with the Japanese home appliances that were so popular.

Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west. The once prosperous Japanese home appliance companies are now declining in the Chinese market. After Haier acquired GE's home appliance business, China's overseas acquisitions have been frequent. First, Midea acquired Toshiba's white appliance business, Sanyo TV was also taken over by Changhong, a domestic home appliance player. In addition, Hon Hai recently acquired Sharp. The decline of Japanese home appliance brands has become a trend.

What a drama of "decline of Japanese home appliance brands"

During the 30-year period from 1970 to 2000, Japanese home appliances dominated the entire home appliance industry. Sharp, Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi were all well-known home appliance brands and the absolute leading force in the Chinese home appliance market. It is no exaggeration to say that any product with electricity has the shadow of Japanese products.

However, Japanese companies' excessive worship of technology and blind pursuit of technological perfection have slowed down the pace of technological innovation. Under the influence of the Internet, they are unable to keep up with the pace of market changes and are beginning to lose control of the market.

On the other hand, Japanese brands were slow to respond to the local market, failed to adapt and innovate for localization, and their after-sales services did not keep up. Although their products were excellent, they were not suitable for local market demand and failed to meet users' real needs in a timely manner.

After 2000, Korean companies rose rapidly, with companies represented by Samsung and LG taking advantage of the trend and becoming leaders in the home appliance industry. However, Samsung and LG looked particularly lonely when faced with the numerical offensive and technological development of competing countries as well as the "sandwich" of competitive small companies.

The Chinese home appliance industry has risen rapidly, and has even pulled down Japanese home appliance manufacturers from the altar of home appliances. Although Chinese home appliance companies, which focus on cost-effectiveness, were initially active in the low-end and mid-range markets, many people think that low prices mean cheapness, which means poor quality, poor quality control, and poor experience. However, this low price has indeed driven the low-end and mid-range consumer market, and forced the high-end big brands to deal with this low-price competition.

On the one hand, Chinese home appliance companies have continuously improved their core technological capabilities through independent innovation, and on the other hand, through capital mergers and acquisitions, etc., achieving rapid capital accumulation and quickly entering the high-end market, achieving a gorgeous counterattack.

Get rid of the burden and redeem yourself

With the rapid rise of Chinese and Korean home appliance companies, Japanese companies seem to be a little overwhelmed and gradually lose their technological advantages under the double pressure of Chinese and Korean companies.

Faced with the embarrassment of huge losses, Japanese home appliance companies responded in a surprisingly consistent manner, cutting off unprofitable product lines, packaging loss-making products, divesting the company's main business, and transferring them out. Chinese home appliance companies, which have ample funds but lack core technology, are naturally the best candidates for "taking over". As a result, a Japanese home appliance brand has been sold to many companies, Midea has acquired Toshiba's white goods business, Skyworth has acquired Toshiba's Asian imaging products, Haier is acquiring Japan's Sanyo, and there is also the much-talked-about "love triangle" between Hon Hai, Sharp, and Hisense. Except for Sony, which is relatively stable in the mid-to-high-end market, the rest of the manufacturers basically only focus on the Japanese domestic market and conduct brand licensing overseas.

Marrying in China, full of blood

The failure of Japanese home appliances was not due to the technology of the products, but the business philosophy of the products. Even today, Japanese home appliances are still highly competitive, especially in terms of fine manufacturing technology, which Chinese companies still have a certain gap with, but in terms of technical reserves, Japanese companies still have a clear advantage.

Take Sharp as an example. After joining Foxconn, Sharp has achieved profits for three consecutive quarters, and it is the first time in seven years that it has made profits in the first fiscal quarter. The profits of Sharp's LCD panel business have improved. After being acquired by Taiwan's Foxconn, Sharp's business reconstruction is gradually getting on track. This year's Double Eleven was even more aggressive, launching a "trade-in upgrade plan" and ushering in a small sales peak. Sharp TV began to fight back comprehensively.

Summary: Although the market share of Japanese home appliance companies is decreasing, their brand effect remains, and their home appliance technology is relatively mature. They are more likely to withdraw from manufacturing and sales and focus on the upstream camp.

In a market surrounded by strong competitors, it is impossible for Japanese home appliance companies to regain their former glory, but they still have a long way to go to seize market share by relying on their original brand influence and core technology. In addition to maintaining their original technological innovation, they must also integrate into the wave of China's localized market and be down-to-earth, younger, more fashionable, and internet-based.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.