SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In September, visitors to New York City's famed Times Square saw TCL Chairman Tomson Li Dongsheng as he appeared on the screen over the massive square, speaking about the company's 34 years spent in the manufacturing industry. "Only through perseverance and determination can we become the backbone of China's economy," he said. "In the future, global technological innovation and growth opportunities will both be found in China."
An ever growing number of Chinese companies have chosen to run short films promoting their brands on the many screens that overlook New York's Times Square - a venue that has become a must for the communications departments of leading China-based firms since the Chinese government ran a series of short films promoting the country on the same screens in 2011. While China's President Xi Jinping is currently visiting the United States, TCL Corporation, the China-based global intelligent product manufacturing and Internet application services group, runs its brand image film on the screens in Times Square, as a demonstration of the firm's determination to remain a leader in manufacturing by expressing its vision of serving as the backbone of the Chinese economy.
TCL chose New York as the locale for the world premiere of their brand promotion efforts not only because the city is the financial capital of the US and a center of the world's economic activities, but also as a reflection of the firm's international strategic objectives and its outstanding performance in the U.S. market. In 2004, in a move to expand market channels in the US, TCL acquired Thomson's color TV business, followed by which TCL built sound partnerships with several U.S.-based e-businesses and consumer electronics firms. TCL and e-business giant Amazon started the cooperation in 2011, gradually serving to strengthen TCL's strategic positioning in the US market. TCL also observed the ever strengthening online shopping habits of consumers and started selling smart TV products that it had co-developed with ROKU, an American company, through Amazon in 2013. As a result, more than 300,000 TCL ROKU TVs were sold in 2014, ranking the TV set brand the seventh among TV brands sold in the US.
In addition to the multimedia business, TCL's communication business is also on the rise in the United States. TCL Communication has been in the U.S. market since 2010, initially as a regional operator. The firm has since established important partnerships with American largest carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. With its advantages in carrier channels, operation capacity and products, TCL Communication's market share has been ranked fourth in the US market since 2014.
As a Chinese company that has always had a strong pioneering instinct, TCL undertook its first exploratory efforts at globalization as early as 1999, then successively acquired Schneider's color TV business, Thomson's color TV business, Alcatel's mobile phone business and the right to use the Palm brand. The firm sees itself as having undergone 3 development stages: early-stage exploration, transnational mergers and acquisitions and steady growth. With 23 R&D facilities and 21 manufacturing facilities worldwide, sales offices in over 80 countries and regions as well as a business network covering more than 160 countries and regions, revenues generated outside of its home market accounted for 47% of its total revenue (exceeding 100 billion Chinese yuan) in 2014, according to that year's financial results.
In the light of the firm's three decades of development, few companies have been able to do what TCL has done: enjoy a smooth international expansion process and hold one's own in the manufacturing sector given the vast changes that have swept across China's economic landscape. The firm, with a focus on product manufacturing and technology development, has continued to respond to and drive the development of both the Chinese and the global economy with innovative and world-acclaimed products as well as products that showcase Chinese creativity to the world: The TCL H8800, a TV that has combined two recent major innovations in the color TV industry - quantum dots and the curved screen, creating the TV set with the largest screen curvature to date, and the IDOL3 smartphone, a smartphone that can answer no matter which side of the phone is being held to the ear. Subsidiaries such as China Star Optoelectronics Technology let Chinese companies have more of a say on the products that get sold in the global LCD panel market and the standards by which the products are made.
"TCL's development will come from both within and outside of China," says Chairman Tomson Li Dongsheng as he commented on TCL's future outlook. "As China's economy matures, we look to keep investing in homegrown innovation and spurring domestic growth, while uncovering new avenues for global development." Looking forward, TCL hopes to be one of the vanguards that not only can realize its corporate global ambitions, but also be able to contribute to the industrial progress of the Chinese economy.
Contact:
Marta Chen
TCL Media & Entertainment Co., Ltd
+86-755-33313868
chenxuejun@tcl.com
