TCL Technology Group Corp. (originally an abbreviation for Telecom Corporation Limited) is a Chinese partially state-owned electronics company headquartered in

Huizhou Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in east-central Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Hey ...

, Guangdong province. TCL develops, manufactures, and sells

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

television set A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s, air conditioners,

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a machine designed to laundry, launder clothing. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water. Other ways of doing laundry include dry cleaning (which uses ...

refrigerator A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermal insulation, thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to ...

s, and small electrical appliances. In 2010, it was the world's 25th-largest consumer electronics producer. On 7 February 2020, TCL Corporation changed its name to TCL Technology. It was the second-largest television manufacturer by

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...

in 2022 and 2023. TCL comprises five listed companies: TCL Technology, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (), TCL Electronics Holdings, Ltd. (), TCL Communication Technology Holdings, Ltd. (former code ; delisted in 2016), China Display Optoelectronics Technology Holdings Ltd. (), and Tonly Electronics Holdings Ltd. (), listed on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

. TCL Technology's business structure is focused on three major sectors: semiconductor display, semiconductor and semiconductor photovoltaic, and industrial finance and capital.

History

The company was founded in 1981 by 2 close friends, Tomson Li Dongsheng and Luca Situ under the brand name TTK as an audio cassette manufacturer. It was founded as a

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

. In 1985, after being sued by Japanese cassette manufacturer TDK for intellectual property violation, the company changed its brand name to TCL by taking the initials from Telecom Corporation Limited. In 1999, TCL entered the Vietnamese market. On 19 September 2002, TCL announced the acquisition of all consumer electronics related assets of the former German company

Schneider Rundfunkwerke Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG was a German manufacturer of mass market audio equipment. History The origins of the company trace to 1889 in Türkheim, Bavaria, Germany, when Felix Schneider founded a company manufacturing industrial woodworking tool ...

, including the right to use its trademarks as ''Schneider'', ''Dual'', ''Albona'', ''Joyce'' and ''Logix''. In July 2003, TCL chairman Li Dongsheng formally announced a "Dragon and Tiger Plan" to establish two competitive TCL businesses in global markets ("Dragons") and three leading businesses inside China ("Tigers"). In November 2003, TCL and

Vantiva Vantiva SA (formerly Technicolor SA, Thomson SARL, Thomson SA, and Thomson Multimedia) is a French multinational corporation that provides technology products and services for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Headquarter ...

(then-named Thomson SA) of France announced the creation of a joint venture to produce televisions and DVD players worldwide. TCL took a 67 percent stake in the joint venture, with Thomson SA holding the rest of the shares, and it was agreed that televisions made by TCL-Thomson would be marketed under the TCL brand in Asia, and the Thomson and RCA brands in Europe and North America. In April 2004, TCL and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile. TCL injected 55 million euros in the venture in return for a 55 per cent shareholding. In April 2005, TCL closed its manufacturing plant in

Türkheim Türkheim is a municipality in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Al ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, laying off 120 former ''Schneider'' employees. In May 2005, TCL announced that its

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

-listed unit would acquire Alcatel's 45 per cent stake in their mobile-phone joint venture for consideration of HK$63.34 million ($8.1 million) worth of TCL Communication shares. In June 2007, TCL announced that its mobile phone division planned to cease using the Alcatel brand and switch entirely to the TCL brand within five years. In April 2008,

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...

announced that it would be outsourcing the production of some LCD TV modules to TCL. In July 2008, TCL announced that it planned to raise 1.7 billion yuan ($249 million) via a share placement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to fund the construction of two production lines for LCD televisions; one for screens of up to 42 inches, and the other for screens of up to 56 inches. TCL sold a total of 4.18 million LCD TV sets in 2008, more than triple the number during 2007. In January 2009, TCL announced plans to double its LCD TV production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2009. In November 2009, TCL announced that it had formed a joint-venture with the

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

government to construct an 8.5-generation thin film transistor-liquid crystal display production facility in the city at a cost of $3.9 billion. In March 2010, TCL Electronics raised HK$525 million through the sale of shares on the

Stock Exchange, in order to fund the development of its LCD and LED businesses and to generate working capital. In May 2011, TCL launched the China Smart Multimedia Terminal Technology Association in partnership with Hisense Electric Co. and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., with the aim of helping to establish industry standards for smart televisions. In January 2013, TCL bought the naming rights for Grauman's Chinese Theatre for $5 million. In 2014, TCL changed the meaning of its identifying initials from "Telephone Communication Limited" to a branding slogan, "The Creative Life", for commercial purposes. In February 2014, TCL spent 280 million RMB to purchase 11 percent shareholdings of Tianjin 712 Communication & Broadcasting Co., Ltd, a Chinese military-owned company which produces communication devices and navigation systems for the Chinese army. In August 2014, TCL partnered with Roku for use as TCL's primary

smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV or, rarely, CoTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features that allow users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart T ...

platform. TCL Corporation and Tonly Electronics was implicated in bribing a government official in Guangdong province in exchange for government subsidies. In October 2014, TCL acquired the Palm

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

from HP for use on smartphones. In 2016, TCL reached an agreement with

BlackBerry Limited BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of things, Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of Interactiv ...

to produce smartphones under the

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

brand, under

BlackBerry Mobile BlackBerry Mobile was a trading name used by TCL Communication between December 2016 and August 2020 to manufacture and sell BlackBerry-branded devices worldwide, excluding the regions where BB Merah Putih (Indonesia) and Optiemus Infracom (I ...

. This deal ceased on 31 August 2020. In 2019, due to restructuring, TCL completed the handover of major assets and was split into TCL Technology Group Corporation (TCL Technology) and TCL Industrial Holdings (TCL Industrials). In 2020, TCL Technology acquired Samsung Display's assets in Suzhou, China, including a Gen 8.5 fab and a co-located LCD module plant.

Operations

TCL is organized into five business divisions: * Multimedia: TV sets * Communications: cell phones and MIFI devices * Home Appliances: AC units and laundry machines * Home Electronics / Consumer Electronics: ODM products, like DVD, etc. * Semiconductor Display and Materials: including China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT), Guangdong Juhua Printing Display Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou ChinaRay Optoelectronic Materials Co., Ltd. In addition, it has four affiliated business areas covering real estate and investment, logistics services, online education services, and finance. In 2021, TCL had 28

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

(R&D) organizations, 10 joint laboratories, and 22 manufacturing bases. TCL Corporation also has its own research facility called TCL Corporate Research, which is located in Shenzhen, with the objective to research cutting-edge technology innovations for other subsidiaries.

Technology

In 2020, TCL introduced an innovative display technology known as TCL NXTPAPER, characterized by its reduction of blue light and anti-glare capabilities, aimed at enhancing visual comfort.

Products

TCL's primary products are TVs, DVD players, air conditioners, mobile phones, home appliances, electric lighting, and

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

. They also sell robot vacuum cleaners. It primarily sells its products under the following brand names: * TCL for TVs and air conditioners in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, South America, and Russia * Alcatel Mobile and Thomson for mobile phones (global)Company Profile
TCL Official Site * RCA-branded electrical products in the United States * Some Roku models in United States * Beginning in 2019,

JB Hi-Fi JB Hi-Fi Limited is an Australian consumer electronics retail company. It is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its headquarters are located in Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria. As of June 2024, the company operates 330 sto ...

in Australia started selling a new line of budget Smart TV's under the brand nam
FFalcon
which are manufactured by TCL, and contain TCL firmware, software and components. The company, as of April 2012, is in venture with Swedish furniture giant

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

to provide the consumer electronics behind the Uppleva integrated HDTV and entertainment system product.

Smartphones

In 2016, it contract manufactured the Blackberry DTEK for

, under their flagship

brand. In December 2016, it became a licensee of the BlackBerry brand, to manufacture, distribute, and design devices for the global market. Until August 2020, it distributed BlackBerry devices under the name of

. TCL is also the owner of the Palm brand. The company launched the Palm "ultra-mobile companion" smartphone in 2018. In late 2019, TCL released their first own-branded Android phone, called the TCL Plex. TCL announced the 10 series for 2020, consisting of the TCL 10 SE, TCL 10L, TCL 10 Pro, TCL 10 Plus and TCL 10 5G.

''TCL TV Plus''

In 2015, TCL launched its own

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television series, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable t ...

service: ''GoLive TV'' or simply ''GoLive''. It was renamed ''TCL Channel'' in 2021 and was relaunched as ''TCL TV Plus'' (stylized as ''TCLtv+'') in 2023.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Chinese brands Chinese companies established in 1981 Companies based in Huizhou 2004 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Computer hardware companies Consumer electronics brands Display technology companies Electronics companies established in 1981 Electronics companies of China Home appliance manufacturers of China Mobile phone manufacturers Multinational companies headquartered in China Netbook manufacturers Video equipment manufacturers Mobile phone companies of China Government-owned companies of China Companies in the CSI 100 Index 1981 in Shenzhen