Haier Smart Home, a Subsidiary of Haier Group Enters Fortune Global 500 Again, Ranking up 51 Spots

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Jul 22, 2019, 10:09 ET

NEW YORK, July 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortune released its 2019 Fortune 500 list on its website on July 22. Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. (stock ticker: 600690.SH, referred to as Haier Smart Home, formerly Qingdao Haier), a subsidiary of Haier Group, is once again on the list thanks to its smart home ecosystem brand strategy and the localization of it globally. Haier's ranking is up 51 spots from last year.

As an enterprise of the times, Haier continues to accelerate the progress of its smart home ecosystem brand strategy, which has brought tremendous changes to consumers' lives in the IoT era. For consumers, Haier Smart Home, through its seven brands, continues to localize its smart home strategy and products around the world and allow different users to customize a better life. For the industry, Haier Smart Home created an ecosystem brand that centered around lifestyle. Through the continued development of ecosystems, including the Internet of Food and the Internet of Clothing, Haier Smart Home pushes forward the transformation and upgrade of the industry. For enterprises, the formation of Haier Smart Home ecosystems is a role model for supply chain precision and value realization.

With many smart products from its seven brands – Haier, GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, AQUA, Candy, Casarte and Leader, Haier's smart home solutions cover all core spaces in a home – living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and balcony to meet global users' needs in the areas of air, water, clothing care, security, entertainment, health and information. And through its proprietary U+ Connect platform, Haier connects the entire household into one system, making seamless, whole-home experience possible and providing a user-centered IoT ecosystem for homes.

One example of the user-centered IoT ecosystem is Haier's Internet of Food platform. In the ecosystem, a refrigerator not only stores food and keeps it fresh, but also is connected with other kitchen appliances, water heaters, air conditioning systems, laundry machines and other devices for smart cooking, housekeeping and environment settings. In addition, Haier's Internet of Food integrates into the fridge more than 200 resources across eight categories including farms, nutritionists and entertainment, allowing the user to buy ingredients directly from farms, track the delivery process from farm to table and get recipe recommendations from the fridge based on the user's dietary preferences.

Haier's collection of global brands serve families worldwide with whole-house solutions customized to each local market - GE Appliances offers individualized smart home solution for North American users; Fisher & Paykel created "social kitchen" for users in New Zealand and Australia; AQUA developed smart "community wash" for Japan; Candy has internet connected home appliances for consumers in Italy and beyond – all realizing Haier's global smart home strategy locally. This global smart home capability was showcased at this year's Appliance & Electronics World Expo with all seven brands exhibiting their customized solutions.

Haier's smart home solutions also bring the Internet of Things to life, creating a connected lifestyle that fosters peace of mind for users. For example, when it comes to clothing care, Haier's Internet of Clothing not only provides washing machines but also offers the capability to oversee the entire life cycle of clothing from washing and caring to styling and shopping, thanks to its artificial intelligence (AI) technology and a big data cloud platform.

While expanding product portfolio and building connectedness are critical to Haier's IoT ecosystem strategy, the company never lost its focus on making smart appliances that have the best core functions. In the case of Internet of Clothing, Haier integrated radio-frequency identification (RFID) and AI identification technologies into the platform. With more than 4800 partners in the clothing field as part of the platform, Haier developed innovative washing machines that have taken the guess work out of the washing process by machine identification of the new advanced clothing tags which Haier lead in development.

When you put your clothes in a Haier smart washing machine, it reads the tag of each piece of clothing, identifies the brand, material, color and style. Then by identifying the laundry detergent's type, the machine uses the precise amount of detergent that's perfect for your load. When the detergent is running low, the washing machine will send you notifications and gives you the option to place an order for detergent on the washing machine or via the U+ Connect App on your phone. All you need to do is press the button and the detergent will be delivered to your home.

The U+ Connect platform is another key component of Haier's IoT ecosystem. Through the platform, Haier integrates its connected appliances with other global partners in the AI and voice interaction fields to best meet consumers' ever-changing needs and bring convenience, assistance and optimal performance to families.

While many industry players focus on standard models, Haier pioneers the possibility for consumers to customize products and solutions, as well as upgrades according to their actual habits and needs, at any time.

Haier's fame and success did not come overnight. Founded in 1984, Haier started its business by making refrigerators in Qingdao, China. Today, the company has 25 industrial parks, 122 manufacturing centers, employs approximately 70, 000 employees in over 100 countries around the world.

Haier embarked on its transformation journey more than a decade ago to lead the world in the IoT managed home and better meet consumer needs. By evolving the organization around the Internet of Things, the enterprise has since been transformed from a closed system to an open system, a network of self-governing microenterprises with free-flowing communication internally and connections with contributors externally.

Under the microenterprise system, the leaders of each microenterprise have the power to hire staff, manage their own P&L, and even recruit external venture capital. In the microenterprise system, Employees are no longer order-takers; they're self-motivated contributors, in many cases electing the leaders and members of their own teams. The microenterprise and employees work together to increase customer satisfaction and eventually convert buyers to lifetime users of products and services.

Today Haier is recognized as the global ecosystem brand trailblazer in the IoT age with many microenterprises supporting seven ecosystems, Internet of Food, Internet of Clothing, Internet of Security, Internet of Air, Internet of Water, Internet of Education and Internet of Health. By continuously advancing its cutting-edge IoT technology and bringing in more world-class partners, Haier is ready to accompany customers around the world as they explore the newfound possibilities of smart homes.

SOURCE Haier Smart Home