Where Does Haier Refrigerator Find Its Next Growth After 17 Years of Global Leadership?

China’s appliance manufacturers are accelerating their global expansion. According to the “H1 2025 China Household Appliance (White Goods) Export Analysis Report” released in August, China’s cumulative exports of household appliances to the world reached $68.78 billion in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%. Examining refrigerator manufacturers, three Chinese companies made it onto the Euromonitor International World Refrigerator TOP10 list. Among them, Haier refrigerators maintained the top spot with a 22.8% market share, marking their 17th consecutive year as the world’s leading brand in retail volume.

However, as competition intensifies in the refrigerator market, the biggest question for the industry leader is: “Where will future growth come from?” Haier refrigerators appear to have already answered this question with their market performance in the first half of the year.

Market Performance: Unlocking Growth Potential Domestically and Abroad

Fueled by policies supporting trade-ins and upgrades, the domestic market continues to generate momentum in 2025, injecting new growth into Haier refrigerators. As of July, Haier’s offline market share reached 47%, a net increase of 2.6 percentage points year-on-year. This further widened their lead, reaching 3.85, making them the top brand in both market share and incremental growth.

The growth potential in overseas markets is even more substantial. In the first half of the year, Haier refrigerators led with a global market share of 22.8% and achieved the highest growth rate in seven countries, including Italy and Spain. In the high-end European market, their products commanded prices 1.4 times the industry average, and their multi-door refrigerators topped the charts with a 40% market share. In emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Haier achieved growth rates exceeding 40% in countries like Thailand and Vietnam, transitioning from simply “entering the market” to actually “leading the market,” thereby energizing overall growth.

Technological Edge: Targeting User Needs, Capturing the Youth Demographic

Market competition ultimately boils down to user experience, with technological innovation and product updates serving as crucial elements. Haier refrigerators, a seven-time global patent leader, uses original technology to overcome industry bottlenecks and precisely reaches younger demographics through user co-creation.

Technologically, Haier’s Magnetic Control Full Space Preservation technology, promising “fresh fish for 60 days, as fresh as from the sea,” addresses users’ needs for food storage flexibility. This technology has been recognized with industry awards, including the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions Gold Medal. The Heyue refrigerator, equipped with this technology, has become the top-selling single product in the entire industry in 2025.

In terms of product development, Haier refrigerators has accurately targeted the demands of younger consumers. Take the Wheatwave refrigerator for example. It adopts a “co-creation” approach favored by young people, from its conception and naming to multiple iterations involving Wheatwave warm colors, the addition of ice makers, and smart light language – all determined by users. As a result, 90% of the users of this series are from the post-90s generation. With sales exceeding 700,000 units in nine months since its launch, it has become the top product in the 8K+ price range (RMB 8,000 and above). On August 20th, the 4th generation of new products will be available for pre-sale, adding in-demand user features such as Magnetic Control Full Space Preservation technology, a panoramic T-stage, and scientific partitioned storage, potentially further igniting the market.

Standard Bearer: Leading Global Standards, Building User Trust

The competition for standards-setting power is not just a fight for influence, but also directly determines the distribution of market share. By leading the IEC international standard for refrigerator preservation, Haier refrigerators is deepening global user trust and opening up new avenues for growth.

For a long time, global refrigeration standards have been dominated by European and American brands, leaving Chinese companies in a “passive” position. Haier refrigerators spent 10 years using solid experimental data and market performance to convince representatives from various countries, ultimately promoting the establishment of the first refrigerator preservation standard in the 119-year history of the IEC. This standard has since been adopted by more than 30 countries and became a Chinese national standard in September 2024.

For consumers, the standard provides a clear benchmark for purchasing decisions, allowing global users to accurately assess the preservation capabilities of refrigerators. For the market, it transforms user trust into consumer choices, driving the industry toward standardization and high-quality development.

Haier refrigerators has provided a clear answer on whether it can continue to grow and how it will continue to grow. This is not only the advancement path of a single brand, but also injects confidence into more leading brands.