A few days ago, TCL Electronics (01070.HK) announced its global shipment data for the third quarter of 2024. Against the backdrop of the global color TV market entering into stock competition, TCL TV global shipments in the third quarter bucked the trend of year-on-year growth of a substantial 19.7%, reaching 7.49 million units; as of the first three quarters of this year, TCL TV global shipments totaled 20.01 million units, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%.
It is worth noting that, in recent years, the global color TV shipments have basically stabilized at 200-220 million units, but the competition for market share among brands has been rising and falling, while the market share of TCL brand TVs has been steadily growing in the midst of fierce market competition. According to the latest data from Omdia, the market share of TCL TVs has now reached 13.3%, ranking the top two in the world.
In the end, TCL Electronics is how to do in the environment of tightening consumption still maintain rapid growth?
Globalization strategy to help sales take off
Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL, once said at the Forum on the Globalization and Development of Chinese Enterprises that “from the perspective of enterprises, the growth space of most industries in the future must come more from globalization.” The forward-looking globalization strategy has played a crucial role in TCL Electronics' sales growth.
In fact, TCL has started its globalization journey since 1999, when it acquired Hong Kong-based Luk's TV factory in Vietnam and set up a branch in Vietnam.
With the gradual growth of business, in the following 25 years, TCL has set up production bases in Poland, Mexico and Brazil to quickly cover the global market, and the annual global TV production capacity has now exceeded 30 million units; at the same time, TCL has further deepened the construction of the global retail channels, refined the customer dimension management, and improved the channel operation efficiency. It is reported that TCL Electronics has covered 90% of the global TOP retail channels, of which the global TOP 50 channels are almost fully controlled.
From supply to sales, TCL Electronics has opened up every link from end to end, strengthening global competitiveness through the advantages of industry chain integration and further consolidating its leading position in the market. It is also in the pre-development period to forge the ability in various fields, when the opportunity comes, the enterprise can realize the take-off.
The year 2024 is full of opportunities, with major sports events such as the European Cup, America's Cup, and the Olympic Games coming one after another. TCL Electronics' strategy of precise sports marketing has played a great role in successfully bringing the brand closer to people, and TCL's global brand image has thus been silently integrated into the hearts of consumers around the world.
The results of strategic investment are reflected in the sales volume. In the first three quarters of this year, TCL Electronics' international market shipments increased by 15.2% year-on-year and achieved remarkable results in Europe, North America as well as emerging markets such as Latin America and Middle East Africa.
In the European market, TCL brand TV shipments in the first three quarters of the year-on-year increase of 35.5%; North American market in the first three quarters of the year-on-year increase in shipments of 8.2%; in addition, in Latin America and the Middle East and Africa and other emerging markets, TCL TV shipments in the first three quarters of the year-on-year increase of 12.1% and 22.7%, respectively. TCL TVs in Australia, the Philippines, Myanmar, to maintain retail sales in the industry first; in the United States, France, Sweden, and ranked third in Spain, Vietnam and the Czech Republic.
Technological Innovation Leads the Middle- and High-end Market
In addition to the globalization strategy, technological innovation and high-end transformation strategy is also an important driving force for TCL Electronics' rapid sales growth.
Large screen can be said to be one of the clearest growth tracks in the color TV industry. Over the past three years, global shipments of oversized TVs over 75 inches have risen year by year, and according to institutional forecasts, global shipments will reach 7.68 million units in 2024, making large-screen TVs the mainstream trend in the development of the color TV industry.
And the important power to support the development of large-screen, from Mini LED technology. Compared with OLED, Mini LED has three major advantages: high contrast, high brightness and low cost. Meanwhile, for manufacturers with traditional LCD technology, they can upgrade their production lines at a lower cost.
As the world's earliest layout Mini LED technology manufacturers, TCL Electronics won the first-mover advantage. Through technological innovation and product innovation, TCL Electronics layout of large-screen market, on the one hand, drive the market price pivot upward, on the one hand, match the mature market consumer demand for large-screen product updates, walking in the forefront of the industry.
At the International Fairs for Consumer Electronics (IFA) in Berlin in 2018, TCL Electronics took a step ahead and exhibited the world's first Mini LED-backlit TV, and in January 2019, TCL exhibited a variety of Mini LED-backlit TVs at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the U.S. Subsequently, in May of the same year, TCL realized the mass production of Mini LED TVs.
TCL Electronics continues to make breakthroughs, launching many new mid- to high-end products that meet consumers' needs through its self-developed Mini LED technology. In 2023, TCL will launch the world's largest 115-inch QD-Mini LED TV with 20,000+ levels of backlighting zones, which will continue to refresh the industry's “ceiling”.
With strong technical strength and product power, TCL Electronics has accelerated its advancement into the mid-to-high-end market. In the first three quarters of this year, the global shipments of TCL Quantum Dot TVs and TCL Mini LED TVs increased by 61.1% and 162.8% year-on-year respectively, further expanding the leading position.
Looking ahead: further consolidation of global leadership
In the first three quarters of 2024, TCL Electronics' global TV shipments, both in absolute terms and in terms of growth rate, verified the multiple effectiveness of its globalization strategy, technological innovation and high-end strategic development. CICC, Pacific Securities and many other major banks have also said that in the current mature market scale expansion of the main driving force, TCL Electronics, with its own continued brand building, product iteration and other advantages, has realized the mature market cut and market share continues to increase.
With the globalization, medium and high-end, large screen strategy continues to promote, TCL Electronics is expected to continue to play advantage, and further consolidate its position as an industry leader.