Recently, LG Electronics held a press conference in Beijing and released its latest drying technology achievements - dual frequency conversion heat pump Zhenyun· dryer . Its dual frequency conversion clothing drying technology, which was first launched, became the focus of industry attention for a while, and also brought the clothes dryer, a familiar and unfamiliar product, back to the public's vision. Why is it said to be familiar and unfamiliar? Familiar with it, my country has designed and manufactured household clothes dryers for more than 20 years; while unfamiliar, it is because the household penetration rate of clothes dryers has been hovering at a low level, and the annual sales volume of the domestic market has also remained at a low level, so many people have never even seen it, let alone use it.
The "three top" of foreign capital aim at clothes dryers, but this step is obviously bigger
Since clothes dryers are such a slightly "unique" product line, are there any companies doing it? Of course the answer is, and they are basically all big brands. In addition to the LG Electronics we just introduced, two other international home appliance giants Bosch (Bosch, Siemens ) and Samsung are also companies that have been focusing on the layout of clothes dryers in recent years.
Siemens 9 kg new clothes dryer
Boxi has a long history of producing and developing clothes dryers. It is reported that since the Siemens clothes dryer was developed in 1950, it has undergone many technological upgrades and product innovations, and it has been 69 years since it was developed. It is not an exaggeration to call him the "big brother" in the clothes dryer industry. In addition, in the Chinese home appliance market, Boxi clothes dryers were also the first to enter the public eye and have always been in the leading position in market sales. According to industry insiders this year, Boxi will also promote the concept of "washing and drying" to once again strengthen its dryer product line.
LG dual frequency heat pump Zhenyun·dryer
At the same time, the two traditional Korean styles are the two strongest. LG and Samsung have also focused on clothes dryer products in recent years and have continuously updated and iterated technologies. Samsung's new clothes dryer product "Ruimu·Jingsu" clothes dryer in 2018 has successfully entered the dryer market by relying on low-temperature drying, Youjia drying system, hot air freshening and other pain points technologies, and has achieved good market attention. It also exhibited its latest clothes dryer products at the CES exhibition that ended not long ago; and the above-mentioned LG has launched a clothes dryer product equipped with a dual-rotor compressor, hoping to win the first place by improving the powerful configuration. And don't forget that LG also has the "Xiyin" series of high-end home appliance products, and it is not ruled out that they will add clothes dryers to this luxury home appliance series product lineup in the future.
Samsung Ruimu Jing Speed Dryer
Foreign capital "three top" are aiming at the action of clothes dryers. For the current Chinese home appliance market, which is more inclined toward consumption classification, is this step right or anxious? The author believes that judging from the current market situation, although the three companies have different expectations for the market, this step is obviously not thoroughly analyzing the current Chinese clothes dryer market. This step is obviously a big step, but perhaps they are "knowing that there is a tiger in the mountain, but they are in a desperate way to go to the tiger mountain."
Market education starts. It takes time to change habits
Putting aside the current market position of the foreign investment "three top" in the market, just looking at the current situation of China's clothes dryer market, it is meaningless to be "secretly serious" arms race. How to say it? As we all know, a clothes dryer is a genuine imported product. Since it is an imported product, it is inevitable that it will not adapt to the local environment, and it is particularly obvious that the dryer will not adapt to the local environment. A set of data shows that in the United States, the combined usage rate of washing machines and standalone dryers reaches 1:0.9, while in Europe it is 1:0.6. But in our country, this number is only 0.1%. Why is the numbers so different? Is it because Chinese people don’t have the money to buy clothes dryers? Obviously not true. The price of Dyson hair dryer is enough to buy N ordinary hair dryers. Why do Chinese people still flock to it? Because demand must be linked to habits, China's nearly a thousand years of drying clothes is difficult to change by the market education of clothes dryers in a short time.
Balcony drying is still the current basic operation
Maybe you will say that China's current weather environment forces us to use clothes dryers, and this statement is not supported by very sufficient reasons.After all, haze, back to the south, and rainy season... these are all periodic weather conditions, and the proportion of the whole year is still a bit too short, and people do not have particularly extreme demands for drying clothes (such as cleaning and drying a certain piece of clothing within three hours), so this situation is still a bit isolated. In general, whether it is living habits or usage needs, clothes dryers are basically dispensable for Chinese people, so it may take a long time to make changes at the level of market education.
clothes dryer market size is still small. More "players" are entering the market. The basis for the healthy development of the market is that the "big market" is large enough and stable, but the current size of China's clothes dryer market is obviously very small. Data shows that China's clothes dryer sales increased rapidly in 2016. That year, China's independent clothes dryer retail sales were 156,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 53.2%, and retail sales were 500 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65.3%. Although the size of the dryer market has been growing in the past two years, data from statistical agencies in the first half of 2018 showed that the sales of dryers were 210,000 units, with sales of only 910 million yuan. In comparison, the sales of washing machines in the first half of 2018 reached 32.3 billion yuan, which is a clear judgment.
The domestic clothes dryer market is small
Although this comparison is a bit "inhumane", it is clear that only when more "players" enter will make the entire market larger and everyone will have food to eat. At present, the brand structure of clothes dryers is dominated by foreign brands, among which Boxi occupies a large market share. Domestic brands have late layout of the clothes dryer market, and early products are mostly high-power consumption products such as direct rows. The product image is relatively low-end and the functions are relatively single, so the brand power is relatively low. However, as more domestic brands gradually realize the market potential contained in the dryer product line, they have begun to develop dryer technology in depth and have also launched a number of sincere dryer products. At present, brands such as Haier, Midea, and Little Swan have begun to strongly intervene in this market. The scale of the dryer market is expected to grow exponentially in the future.
Wash and dryer all-in-one sales. The market space of the clothes dryer is squeezed.
In addition to factors such as user needs and market size, there is another problem that cannot be ignored. The hot sales of "wash and dryer all-in-one" in recent years. According to data from Zhongyikang, from January to November 2018, in the online market of drum washing machine , the retail volume of washing and drying machine increased by 34.9% year-on-year, with a market share of 32.3%, and a retail sales increased by 41.7% year-on-year, with a proportion of 41.2%; in the offline market of tumble washing machine, the retail volume of turbulent washing machine increased by 33.4% year-on-year, with a proportion of 21.4%, with a proportion of retail sales increased by 30.1% year-on-year, with a proportion of 29.8%. Due to its drying function, the category of washing and drying all-in-one products has invisibly squeezed the market space of independent clothes dryers. With the iterative technology upgrade of the future washing and drying all-in-one products, this phenomenon may exist for a long time.
Wash drying machine currently uses condensing drying technology
In terms of current technical functions, the advantage of independent clothes drying machines is that they can provide heat pump low-temperature drying technology, because general washing and drying machines only carry condensing and drying technology, and there is still a big difference in the actual experience of the two. In addition, due to no space limitations, independent clothes drying machines can be equipped with dual-rotor compressors like LG clothes dryers, occupying the technical high ground, which is something that ordinary washing and drying machines cannot have. However, from the user's perspective, if washing and drying clothes are all urgent needs, spending the same money can solve the two problems of washing and drying at the same time. It is really difficult to convince yourself to pay another penny, and the prices of independent clothes dryers are not cheap. Therefore, for the "three strongest" who are promoting independent clothes dryers, sometimes the pressure comes from themselves, because they themselves are also producing washing and drying integrated machines with drying functions.
But the author believes that in the future, the market overlap between washing and drying machines and independent clothes dryers will inevitably become smaller and smaller, which is also the reason why the "three top" have to "knowing that there is a tiger in the mountains, but they tend to travel to the tiger mountain."Because independent clothes dryers can provide more drying procedures and more detailed drying care, the target group of people of this type of product is high-end elites who focus on clothing quality. They have their own special needs for clothes drying. The "three top" are all high-end home appliance brands, and they need to explore this path.
washing and drying machine will become a cost-effective choice in the future. For users who have drying needs but do not often need to dry, the washing machine has a good supplement with the drying function. The "three top" will also focus on this field for sales. Therefore, although the washing and drying machine currently squeezes some of the market space of clothes dryers, the two will inevitably not conflict in the future. The "three top" of foreign capital is indeed a bit big, but the market must not only look at the moment, but you need to know that "the storm is about to come and the wind is full of the building."
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