Consumer Insights | Haier Group: A 400 billion "beast" with 100,000 times growth

The low-key Haier has gone viral.

Zhou Yunjie, Chairman and CEO of Haier Group, became an overnight sensation at the Two Sessions representative channel.

Standing next to the beaming Lei Jun, Zhou Yunjie's expression and gaze were calm and profound, just like Haier Group's current style—shocking the industry quietly.

(Zhou Yunjie, Chairman and CEO of Haier Group, unexpectedly became popular at the Two Sessions due to his "adorable expression")

When you think Haier is still just the cute two brothers in shorts, it has actually grown into a dual 400 billion "beast" in China's industry.

400 Billion Empire

One thing many people are unaware of is that Haier Group is also adept in the capital market.

In just one week, Haier Group spent 15 billion to successively announce the acquisition of control over A-share company New Times and Hong Kong-listed Autohome. After the news was released, New Times saw six consecutive limit-up trading days, shocking the market.

Investors are asking—

The giant has arrived. What for?

Looking at the industrial maps of these two companies, they seem completely unrelated. But if everyone takes a closer look at Haier's significant investments over the past five years, they might be even more puzzled.

How did this low-key giant manage to achieve such a tight layout quietly?

Data source: Wall Street Insight, chart based on public information

Haier Group's capital operations have a clear main line, centered around the group's three strategic layouts—

Smart Home, Industrial Internet, Big Health

All acquisitions and integrations are aimed at achieving synergy, strengthening the advantages in these three fields, and establishing an empire with boundless territory.

How strong is this empire? The dual "400 billion" can summarize Haier Group's strength level.

The first 400 billion is the group's revenue exceeding 400 billion.

Haier Group released its annual report, stating that in 2024, revenue reached 401.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%, making it the first company in Qingdao to surpass 400 billion in revenue. Profit was 30.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13%. This demonstrates solid and robust operational capabilities in the turbulent global environment of 2024.

The second 400 billion is the group's market value of approximately 400 billion.

Since Haier acquired the GEM company Xingpu Medical and renamed it Yinkang Life to enter the big health industry in 2019, Haier has embarked on a series of investments and controlling operations in listed companies.

Including the recent acquisitions of New Times and Autohome, Haier Group has controlled a total of 8 listed companies with a combined market value of approximately 400 billion over the past five years.

Data source: Wall Street Insight, chart based on public information, data as of March 10, 2025 Haier is continuously integrating its high-quality assets.

For example, it is planning to merge and restructure Shanghai Laishi and Haier Bio to improve operational efficiency; the industrial internet industry leader, Kaos, completed its counseling filing with the Qingdao Securities Regulatory Bureau in September 2024, while pursuing an IPO and acquiring a controlling stake in New Times, not ruling out the possibility of a backdoor listing. This dual approach highlights Haier's consistent prudent style.

From the current perspective, Haier has achieved a 100,000-fold growth from 3.48 million in revenue to over 400 billion in its 40 years of entrepreneurship, remaining low-key yet powerful. Haier Group has consistently implemented a dual-wheel growth strategy of "core business + mergers and acquisitions," which has proven to be effective.

Of course, there are some minor concerns in the market, such as whether Haier Group's large-scale operations can be supported by its funding and cash flow.

Three Major Strategies Gradually Closing the Loop

In fact, Haier's foundation is similar to that of Zhou Yunjie—low-key but solid.

The three major strategies of the group are gradually closing the loop, and the blood-generating capacity of the core business supports the group's further expansion.

1) Smart Home

As the group's core business and cash cow, Haier Smart Home, led by Haier, is steadily expanding and is positioned for growth over the next decade through globalization.

Financial reports show that Haier Smart Home's revenue for the first three quarters of 2024 reached 203 billion yuan, with a net profit of 15.15 billion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 2.17% and 15.27%. In the context of macroeconomic pressure and a relatively sluggish real estate market in 2024, Haier's financial report is indeed robust. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter and 2025, benefiting from macroeconomic shifts and dual fiscal and monetary stimulus, under the boost of 300 billion yuan in consumer subsidies, we believe Haier Smart Home's performance will significantly benefit from the recovery of domestic demand and supportive policies.

Source: Company financial report, Wall Street Insight graphics, data as of the third quarter of 2024

The global layout is Haier Smart Home's next strong card for differentiation.

Throughout 2024, Haier established 21 new supply chain projects, with 11 already in production. Haier's SCO refrigerator interconnected second factory in China has commenced production, and the foundation has been laid for air conditioning and washing projects;

In Thailand, the Haier Air Conditioning Industrial Park has been established, which will become the largest air conditioning production base for Chinese brands in Thailand and Southeast Asia upon completion;

In Egypt, the first phase of the Haier Egypt Ecological Park has opened, and the second phase has been laid, positioning the project as Egypt's first home appliance industry cluster, providing new production capacity for expansion into Egypt, the Middle East, Africa, and European markets.

At the same time, in 2024, Haier also completed acquisitions and expansions in South Africa, acquiring the Electrolux South Africa water heater business to enter the African market channels Haier's strength and position in global layout are likely underestimated by the market. A little-known fact is that—

Among Chinese home appliances sold overseas, 6 out of every 10 units come from Haier.

Haier has established 35 industrial parks and 163 manufacturing centers across 20 countries on 4 continents, including 15 industrial parks and 60 factories overseas. Overseas revenue has surpassed 53% of total revenue, making it a true global giant.

This brings nearly 20 billion in operating cash flow to Haier Smart Home each year, serving as the most important engine and booster for the expansion of the entire group's territory.

Source: Wind, Chart by Wallstreetcn

2) Industrial Internet

In the field of industrial internet, Haier's current layout revolves around two core platforms: COSMOPlat and KATACHI, which have basically secured the new technology tickets for the future.

Why did Haier acquire New Times? Those who do not understand may think Haier is riding the "robot" industry wave, but those who truly understand Haier's connotation will realize that this is a key move in Haier's industrial internet strategy, an important task to supplement the hardware shortcomings of the COSMOPlat platform.

COSMOPlat was established in April 2017 with a registered capital of 1,526,631,600 yuan. Haier directly holds 49.11% of COSMOPlat's shares, making it the controlling shareholder. COSMOPlat is an industrial internet platform created by Haier based on nearly 40 years of manufacturing experience, launched in April 2017, focusing on mass customization and introducing user participation throughout the process, empowering the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing.

How to describe COSMOPlat? You can think of it as the "Windows system" in the industrial internet. It has ranked first in the national industrial internet dual-cross platform for six consecutive years, linking over 900,000 enterprises and helping Haier build the world's most advanced factory model—"Lighthouse Factory." As the pinnacle practice of global intelligent manufacturing, there are currently 172 "Lighthouse Factories" worldwide, with mainland China leading the world with 74, of which Haier alone occupies 10, ranking first globally. This is the fruit of Haier's manufacturing strength and the empowerment of the COSMOPlat platform. The pioneering Tianzhi industrial large model has accumulated over 4,700 mechanism models and more than 200 expert models, and has been selected as a typical application case of large artificial intelligence models in Shandong Province.

New Times possesses key core technologies such as servo systems and controllers, has important customer resources like BYD, FAW, and SAIC, and is the second-ranked company in domestic SCARA robot shipments. In the future, whether entering the humanoid robot industry or empowering the COSMOPlat platform with industrial robot capabilities, Haier has gained flexible strategic space.

The acquisition of Autohome for $1.8 billion (approximately 13 billion RMB) aims to strengthen the industrial internet capabilities of "Kataichi."

In 2021, Haier established the Kataichi platform, focusing on the used car market, automotive modification customization, and smart charging fields. By 2024, Kataichi has already secured 4 positions among the top ten in net sales of used cars, and with the future influx of traffic from Autohome, Haier is likely to gain a leading advantage in this promising market.

Autohome remains the leader in the automotive information field, boasting 77.48 million daily active users and a database of models and users accumulated over more than 20 years, creating a unique data barrier in the industry. With over 7 billion RMB in revenue and a profit level of 1.6 billion RMB in 2024, its industry position is evident.

Acquiring an important piece of its industrial puzzle at a relatively low valuation, Kataichi is more firmly stepping towards becoming an industry leader.

3) Big Health

If smart home is the core and industrial internet is the trend, then the big health industry is the future of Haier Group.

The entire big health sector is centered around Haier Bio, Yinkang Life, and Shanghai Laisai, supplemented by Haier's expertise in cold chain capabilities, with precise layout and gradual advancement. Although the proposal to absorb and merge with Shanghai Laisai ultimately failed due to difficulties in coordinating interests and the dispersed equity of the merger target, no one doubts that once Haier Group seizes the opportunity in the future, it will further expand its business layout and sector strength in the big health field.

With smart home as the core cash cow, expanding new technological capabilities in the industrial internet, and leveraging the promising prospects of big health for decades to come, Haier's strategic advancement capability, looking ten years ahead, planning five years, and executing three years, has indeed formed a closed loop and created a certain acceleration trend at this point in time.

The Traffic Trend is Just Right

In the face of market competition in the new era, how to effectively reach users and market products is undoubtedly a significant test for consumer brands.

It is humorously said that "Lei Jun alone is worth a marketing department," and such market energy holds learning significance for any consumer-facing enterprise.

Haier is clearly seeking change. According to the company's official Douyin introduction, Zhou Yunjie’s personal account is about to launch. In this era, having good products and research is not enough; appropriate marketing and publicity are crucial for both enterprises and users. It is evident that Zhou Yunjie is well-prepared for this occasion.

Source: Haier Group official Douyin

As a brand with over 40 years of history, Haier's ability to stand tall and reach new heights is largely due to its continuous speed of iteration and transformation. As a leader of a 400 billion company, Zhou Yunjie's response to "going viral and trending" is very well received in the market: he can readily accept netizens' teasing, discover imagination from comments, and understand that this traffic and trending are manifestations of netizens' love and attention for the Haier brand As a Shandong man who has worked as an engineer at Haier for over 30 years, his ability to accept and understand the internet has honestly exceeded expectations. Perhaps Haier has long been waiting for such a great opportunity.

In the internet era, attention is the strongest productivity. It can directly enhance market demand and, in turn, promote supply capacity and product quality. The methodology of creating products "centered around users" has been successfully validated over the past 10 years.

Through the enhanced use of innovative tools, the distance between Haier and its users has been continuously shortened, which not only helps the company to respond to user needs and solve user pain points but also enhances brand competitiveness and appeal. The digital revolution has been a deep reform that Haier Group has been promoting over the past few years. Whether it is the industrial internet on the production side or internet traffic on the consumer side, this is the right time for Haier.

In the coming weeks, CEO Zhou Yunjie’s "official debut" may very well be Haier Group's "SU7 moment," hearing the thunder in silence.

Let’s see how this pragmatic, low-key, and unpretentious Shandong iron man leads Haier, this giant beast, to challenge the trillion-dollar empire