Midea, Haier, and Gree, once grouped together as the "Big Three" home appliance giants due to their top-three rankings by scale, now find themselves at a divergence crossroads in 2025. Based on their 2025 interim report cards, Midea Group and Haier Smart Home continue to achieve revenue and net profit growth through different strengths and business structures. While Gree Electric Appliances,Inc.Of Zhuhai maintained steady revenue and net profit performance, it delivered results that lacked both compelling narrative and growth potential.

Industry insiders point out that the real challenge facing Gree Electric Appliances,Inc.Of Zhuhai and many appliance companies is whether they can maintain their industry position by relying solely on the narrow path of single appliance categories. The solutions may already be evident in the financial reports of Midea Group and Haier Smart Home.

**01 Different Growth Drivers**

A closer examination of Midea Group and Haier Smart Home's interim reports reveals that leading appliance companies' growth has taken on new characteristics. Midea Group achieved revenue of 252.331 billion yuan in the first half, up 15.7% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 26.014 billion yuan, up 25% year-on-year.

Behind this dual high-growth performance lies Midea Group's diversified structural transformation in growth drivers. While the white goods segment remains the core revenue contributor, the commercial and industrial solutions business is also expanding rapidly. According to the financial report, business segments including new energy components, building intelligence, industrial automation, and robotics generated over 64.5 billion yuan in revenue in the first half, up more than 20% year-on-year, becoming new growth engines.

In other words, Midea Group has charted new growth pathways, accumulating fresh growth momentum through B2B transformation, industrialization, and technology-driven initiatives.

Haier Smart Home's core growth drivers have shifted toward digitalization, premiumization, and globalization. The financial report shows that in the first half of 2025, Haier achieved revenue of 156.494 billion yuan, up 10.2% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 12.033 billion yuan, up 15.6% year-on-year, both reaching new highs for the same period.

Unlike Midea Group, Haier Smart Home's core growth comes from overseas markets. As a company with earlier and broader overseas deployment, Haier Smart Home's overseas revenue now exceeds half of total revenue and shows continuous growth. In the first half, Haier Smart Home's overseas revenue reached 79.079 billion yuan, up 11.7% year-on-year. Emerging markets including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and Africa have become growth engines for Haier Smart Home's overseas expansion.

Additionally, Haier Smart Home has applied AI to product development, creating a "content co-creation" mechanism that generated 1.49 billion yuan in retail sales.

Former competitors Midea Group and Haier Smart Home now show clear differentiation in business composition and growth pillars. Midea Group seeks growth in the industrial sector through industrialization, while Haier Smart Home leverages first-mover advantages to improve revenue structure and achieve scale breakthroughs through overseas expansion.

**02 Common Solutions**

However, behind Midea Group and Haier Smart Home's above-expectation performance lie both differences and commonalities. Industry insiders note that whether through industrialization, digitalization, or globalization, the essence remains breaking free from single-product sales limitations and achieving scale breakthroughs through newer and more diverse growth poles.

Simply put, Midea Group and Haier Smart Home's growth comes from beyond home appliances and beyond China. Midea expands revenue sources from appliance business to industrial business through industrial-grade solutions, using B2B business to hedge against white goods cycles. Haier Smart Home pursues ecological and digital transformation, continuing to attract consumer interest through single-product innovation while integrating smart appliance products with furniture into comprehensive smart home solutions, establishing long-term growth directions.

Globalization has become an industry consensus. Midea Group accumulates financial and brand strength for overseas expansion through Hong Kong stock listing, while Haier Smart Home achieved earlier brand localization through overseas acquisitions, sustaining overseas revenue growth.

These two points indicate that competition among leading appliance companies is no longer confined to the appliance market or the Chinese market. Only by expanding beyond the appliance and Chinese markets can companies access broader growth horizons.

Taking Gree Electric Appliances,Inc.Of Zhuhai as an example, its gap with Midea Group and Haier Smart Home is not evident in the appliance segment. In the white goods sector alone, Gree Electric Appliances,Inc.Of Zhuhai remains a deserving member of the Big Three through technological leadership, high self-sufficiency in core components, and solid channel systems.

The key question is whether Gree Electric Appliances,Inc.Of Zhuhai can establish new growth poles beyond air conditioning. Over the past decade, China's appliance industry was nearly hijacked by price wars, with companies consuming profits for scale through repeated promotions. However, Midea Group and Haier Smart Home's interim reports demonstrate that the industry's future lies not in "being cheaper" but in who can chart new growth paths beyond appliances and beyond China.

Gree's current situation serves as a mirror - the era of "relying solely on single products" is passing. The paths taken by Midea Group and Haier Smart Home represent two coordinate axes for the industry's future. Their intersection may well be the growth story for the appliance industry's next decade.