Hisense Group is a Chinese multinational major appliance and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Televisions are the main products of Hisense, and it is the largest TV manufacturer in China by market share since 2004. Hisense is also an OEM, so some of its products are sold to other companies and carry brand names not related to Hisense.
Two major subsidiaries of Hisense Group are listed companies, Hisense Visual Technology () and Hisense H.A. (, ). Both had a state ownership of over 30% via Hisense holding company before the end of 2020.
Hisense Group has over 80,000 employees worldwide, as well as 14 industrial parks, some of which are located in Qingdao, Shunde, Huzhou, Czech Republic, South Africa and Mexico. There are also 18 R&D centers located in Qingdao, Shenzhen, the United States, Germany, Slovenia, Israel, and other countries.
Qingdao No.2 Radio Factory, the predecessor of Hisense Group, was established in September 1969; this is the year its existence was first officially recognized. The small factory's first product was a radio sold under the brand name Red Lantern, but the company later gained the know-how to make TVs through a trial-production of black and white televisions ordered by the Shandong National Defense Office. This involved the technical training of three employees at another Chinese factory, Tianjin 712, and resulted in the production of 82 televisions by 1971 and the development of transistor TVs by 1975. Their first TV model, CJD18, was produced in 1978.
Television production in China was limited until 1979, when a meeting of the Ministry of Electronics in Beijing concluded with calls for greater development of the civil-use electronics industry. Qingdao No.2 Radio Factory was then quickly merged with other local electronics makers and manufactured televisions under the name Qingdao General Television Factory in Shandong province.
Color televisions were manufactured through the purchase of a production line from Matsushita, the first of many such technology transfers from foreign firms Hisense has made in order to remain competitive.