The second half of 2019 has begun. In the first half of the year, the color TV market continued the sales trend of 2018, and the overall market still did not improve. Under such industry reality, some traditional color TV manufacturers began to focus on the relatively profitable kitchen appliance sector and launched smart kitchen appliance products. However, with the international trade pattern turbulent, the downward pressure on the domestic economy increasing, residents' consumption shrinking, and the macro environment unstable, can this move save traditional color TV companies?

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Market sales continue to decline, and color TVs have lost their main position in the "618 Big Sale"

Focusing on the color TV industry itself, China's TV industry has gone through more than 60 years of development. The industrial chain is basically comprehensive and mature, and has given birth to many national brands and outstanding companies. However, market competition has also become increasingly fierce.

In the first half of 2019, in the upstream industry chain, high-generation panel lines were put into production, and the supply of large-size panels increased, which led to panel price differentiation. Whole-machine companies gained room for price reductions; in the downstream retail market, the Yuanchun promotion period opened Red, the overall market size dropped by 1.1% in the first quarter, and the overall market size dropped by 2.2% during the May Day promotion period. Entering June, although a number of national home appliance consumption stimulus policies have been successively promulgated and implemented, the color TV market is still in a downturn amid fluctuations.

According to statistics from Aowei Cloud Network, during the 2019 "618 Big Sale" (week 22 to week 25 of 2019, May 27 to June 26, 2019), the retail volume of China's color TV market was 2.52 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%; the retail sales were 5.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.8%.

As one of the first categories to participate in the "618 Big Sale", color TVs have become more dependent on online channels year by year. They were once a veteran player in the "618 Big Sale". However, as industry competition intensifies, corporate profits have been thinned, and the demand for TV products has declined, color TVs have lost their main status in the "618 Big Sale".

Color TV manufacturers entering the kitchen appliance market, will it become a new round of profit high ground?

Since last year, many color TV brands have entered into a price war with their large-screen TVs. Some Internet brands’ 55-inch ultra-high-definition large-screen TVs can even be purchased for just over 2,000 yuan. During this year’s “618 Big Sale”, the price of color TVs revisited history*, and the overall average price tilted sharply towards the price range below 2,000 yuan. The profits of color TV products continued to be squeezed, and the low-price strategy failed to bring about explosive growth.

In this context, many color TV brands began to think about changes and joined the competition in the kitchen appliance market in the first half of the year. For example, Skyworth established a kitchen appliances division; Konka launched gas stoves and hoods; TCL unveiled a new smart range hood, etc.

In 2019, color TV companies are flocking to the kitchen appliance field for three reasons:

*. The color TV market demand is close to saturation, rising raw material costs and other factors make the survival of color TV companies worried, and companies need to seek new profit growth points; second, home appliances The diversified transformation of enterprises has become a general trend. For example, Gree has entered the mobile phone industry, Skyworth has entered the high-end white appliance industry, etc. Third, in the kitchen appliance market in 2018, emerging categories of dishwashers and embedded products are in the blue ocean market, and many companies want to carve up this rapidly expanding cake.

However, as the number of companies entering the market gradually increases, competition in the kitchen appliance market has become fierce.

According to the total sales data of AVC from January to April 2019, the retail scale of the kitchen appliance market fell by 16.4% year-on-year, and the market entered a downward channel. In the first week of the "618 Big Promotion" (week 22 of 2019, May 27-June 2, 2019), the kitchen appliance market continued to be sluggish, with a year-on-year decrease of 10.9%. The performance of dishwashers in emerging categories was also relatively average.

Facing this trend, the editor believes that in the Internet era, diversified transformation is an inevitable trend. Home appliance companies should innovate and reform. However, under the trend of consumption upgrading, color TV companies should first find the shortcomings of their color TV products and make up for them before considering entering the kitchen appliance field. Only in this way can they have a place in the future home appliance market when the 5G era comes.