Many people from the post-70s and 80s generations still remember the resounding advertisement for Changhong TV: "Rainbows in the sky, Changhong in the world."

In the 1990s, refrigerators, motorcycles, and color TVs became the three essential items for newlywed families. Changhong color televisions, due to their affordable prices and superior quality, once swept across the country, with a domestic market share as high as 35%, becoming a nationally recognized household appliance giant.

However, times have changed, and now it is the era of smartphones and tablets that dominate the world, occupying everyone's hands and attention. Televisions seem to have faded out of the leisure life of most people in the country.

Not long ago, the 2024 TV industry information released by "China Research Network" showed that from January to March of this year, China's TV export volume was 22.64 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%, while the global TV shipment volume decreased by 0.8%.

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According to the latest survey report from the Smart Public Association on "the market share of TV brands used by respondents," the top four brands in the Chinese TV consumer market are currently TCL, Hisense, Xiaomi, and Skyworth.

The once-dominant TV brand "Changhong," which held the sales championship for 20 years, has now slipped to fifth place, with a market share of only 7.7%.

So, why has Changhong TV, once a household appliance giant, fallen to the fifth place in the industry?

The predecessor of Changhong Group was the Changhong Machinery Factory located in Mianyang, Sichuan, which was established in 1958.In 1967, after Changhong Machinery Factory transitioned from a military to a civilian enterprise, it retained numerous cutting-edge technologies and thus established a direction for the research and development of television sets.

Also in this year, Ni Runfeng, who was only 23 years old and had just graduated from university, was assigned to the factory as a technician.

In 1972, the factory manufactured its first black-and-white television, named "Changhong."

The name "Changhong" not only matched the factory's name but also carried the implication of the Li Bai's verse "a long rainbow piercing the sun," making it both resonant and beautiful.

By 1980, to meet the domestic demand for color television, Changhong introduced a color TV production line from Japan, laying a solid foundation for further development in production.

After 18 years of working at the factory, Ni Runfeng had been promoted from a technician to a workshop director for many years, and now, amidst the reform of the factory director responsibility system, he became the head of Changhong Group.

In the same year, Changhong launched its first and the country's first domestically produced color TV, model CJ37A, which was then put into mass production.

At that time, the Chinese color TV market was almost entirely filled with color TVs imported from Japan or produced by Japanese-funded enterprises in China, and the prices were very high.

In 1989, with the implementation of a color TV monopoly policy, many color TV manufacturing enterprises faced a situation where a large number of products were stockpiled in warehouses.

Against this backdrop, Ni Runfeng assessed the situation and boldly decided to reduce the price of each Changhong color TV by 300 yuan.For a time, the common people were all scrambling to buy Changhong televisions.

When other TV manufacturers followed suit and reduced their prices, Changhong had already sold 200,000 units of its color TV inventory, thus ascending to the throne of the best-selling color TV in 1990, a position it would hold for 20 years.

In 1993, Changhong launched the "Red Sun Series" of color TVs, once again leveraging its price advantage to outcompete the "Picture King" series introduced by Japanese company Panasonic, becoming the renowned color TV king nationwide.

Just one year later, Ni Runfeng led Changhong to go public in Shanghai, and its stock price once reached as high as 15.09 yuan per share within a few years. After raising more funds, Changhong's development was like a tiger with wings added.

By 1997, Changhong TV's market share had reached as high as 35%, with a net profit of 2.612 billion yuan, becoming the true first national brand.

At that time, after several years of consecutive victories, Ni Runfeng became more confident and aggressive, determined to completely monopolize the domestic color TV market and then become a world-renowned enterprise.

A key measure taken by Ni Runfeng was to sign secret agreements with major domestic cathode ray tube factories, securing 63% of the 25-inch cathode ray tube share and all shares of 29-inch and above cathode ray tubes for himself.

As we all know, the cathode ray tube is the core component in the production of color TVs, just like the chips in today's smartphones.

Ni Runfeng's move almost made Hisense, Konka, TCL, and Skyworth furious to the point of spitting blood. They not only personally sought cathode ray tube supplies but also jointly sued Ni Runfeng to the Ministry of Information Industry.

And the cathode ray tube suppliers did not fully adhere to the agreements signed with Ni Runfeng; they added production lines to supply other TV manufacturers, leading to a rampant smuggling business of color TV cathode ray tubes along the southeast coast.Ni Runfeng's monopoly of a large amount of resources must have also occupied a huge amount of funds, and the rapid update and replacement of color TVs meant that some of the original raw materials would also lose their original value. Some industry insiders have commented that if Ni Runfeng had used the funds occupied by the monopoly of resources for technological innovation back then, perhaps Changhong would not have lost as badly as it did later.

In 2001, in order to explore the foreign market, Ni Runfeng led Changhong to cooperate with the American company APEX. This company had a poor reputation in the Chinese home appliance circle due to its arrears of payments to many domestic companies, but after several trips to the United States for investigation, Ni Runfeng still chose to cooperate with Ji Longfen.

From July 2001 to 2003, Changhong's products were continuously shipped to the American APEX company. However, this company refused to pay for the goods on the grounds of non-compliance with product quality standards or not receiving the goods. In the end, APEX company accumulated a debt of up to 4 billion yuan to Changhong.

In July 2004, Ni Runfeng reached the retirement age. Zhao Yong, who had worked in the management of Changhong for many years and served as the vice mayor of Mianyang from 2001 to 2004, returned to Changhong to succeed Ni Runfeng's position and became the new leader of Changhong Group.

In order to save the severely damaged Changhong Group, Zhao Yong's planned route was technological innovation. The road of technological innovation is a dangerous one; if successful, it may bring huge dividends, but if it fails, it will suffer huge losses.

In 2005, two new trends appeared in TV screen display technology: one was plasma technology and the other was LCD technology. As for which technology research would take the lead in making a breakthrough and ultimately occupy the market, no one could predict it at the time.Determined to pursue a path of technological innovation, Zhao Yong set his research direction on plasma technology. He first spent 2 billion US dollars to acquire the Korean Orion Plasma Company, and then invested 720 million RMB to establish the Sichuan Hongou Company for the production of plasma panels. The original intention of Zhao Yong's move was to extend upstream in the industrial chain to solve the company's "pain of lacking screens". However, fortune did not favor Changhong. While their plasma technology research was still troubled by the disadvantages of complex structure, heavy weight, and easy to heat, liquid crystal technology research had achieved breakthrough progress. When many home appliance companies at home and abroad turned to the field of liquid crystals, Changhong was difficult to turn around due to the huge investment, and insisted on plasma until 2014. In November of that year, Changhong sold 30% of the shares of Hongou Company for 64.2 million yuan, declaring the end of its plasma route. According to the financial report in 2015, Changhong had lost 2 billion RMB. In order to save Changhong from the loss, the leadership core with Zhao Yong has tried every means to develop various businesses of the group. Perhaps it was too eager to get out of the predicament, Changhong's investment was really too much and miscellaneous, such as entering the mobile phone industry, entering the IT industry, and even entering the real estate and kitchen and bathroom fields. Although the business is getting bigger and bigger, and the volume is getting bigger and bigger, Changhong has become a follower in many fields, and the diversified investment is constantly dispersing the group's strength, making it completely lose the position of the former home appliance overlord.According to data from AVC, by 2021, Changhong TV's market share had already declined to 7.55%. On August 24, 2022, news emerged online that Changhong Group was selling properties to "regenerate its blood." This was because the announcement released by Changhong Group clearly stated that it intended to sell a total of 31 properties located in Mianyang, Wuhan, and other places. On the same day that the house sale was announced, Changhong also released its financial report for the first half of 2022, which showed that the group's revenue for the first half of the year was 43.948 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.71%, and the net profit attributable to non-recurring losses was -24.113.4 million yuan. In other words, under the leadership of Zhao Yong, Changhong not only failed to stop the downward trend but also became more unstable. In December 2018, Ni Runfeng, the former leader of Changhong, was awarded the Pioneer of Reform Medal and also received the honorary title of "Practical Innovator of Enterprise Military-to-Civilian Transformation." In July 2023, Zhao Yong stepped down, and Liu Jiang, the third-generation leader of Changhong, took office. Some netizens joked that if Liu Jiang wants to make Changhong successful, he must first turn red. Indeed, at that time, Changhong was facing a survival issue first and then a development issue, after all, only surviving is the king. It has to be said that after dominating the position of China's home appliance overlord for 20 years, Changhong has retreated to the fifth place, and its business situation is worrying, which is really sighing. Many industry insiders believe that although there is an objective reason for the overall downturn in the TV industry, the more important reason is that there have been major decision-making mistakes in the two generations of leaders.Ni Runfeng succeeded in price wars, but also failed in them. During his nearly 20 years in office, he focused solely on using marketing tactics to capture the market, neglecting investment in technological innovation.

When he attempted to expand into foreign markets to lead Changhong out of its predicament, he chose the wrong partners, resulting in the loss of 4 billion yuan and damaging Changhong's vitality.

Some industry insiders have pointed out that as early as 2013, Changhong had launched the "Home Internet Strategy," and three years later, they introduced artificial intelligence televisions.

Regrettably, Changhong never truly formed a competitive edge, leading to a continuous decline in its industry status and the embarrassing situation it finds itself in today.

As the former king of color TVs, whether Changhong can navigate through the muddy path of transformation and regain its former glory remains to be seen.