Midea Group (Chinese: 美的集团; pinyin: Měidí jítuán) is a privately held Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Shunde, Guangdong. As of 2012, the firm employs approximately 150,000 people in China and overseas. It should not be confused with its publicly listed subsidiary, GD Midea Holding (Chinese: 美的电器; pinyin: Měidí diànqì, SZSE: 000527).
Starting with initial funding of CNY5,000 to open a workshop for the production of bottle lids in Beijiao, Shunde in 1968, He Xiangjian (何享健), the founder of the company, has since turned Midea into one of the most successful private companies in China, with sales revenue for the entire Group declared at US$22.2 billion for 2011.
After its initial beginning involving bottle lids, the company focused on the manufacture of electric fans. It then embarked on a wide variety of electric appliances, such as air conditioners, microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers, water dispensers, domestic gas appliances, cooker hoods, heaters and vacuum cleaners—and more recently, electronic controllers.
Midea increased its number of patent and utility model applications from 2000 to 2004 from two to more than 40 applications. In the following three years the number of applications decreased from more than 40 per year to only twenty in 2007. After an increase in 2008, the number of patents and utility models dropped again in 2009.
