Where Are Vizio TVs Made and Who Makes Them? (HINT: Not the US!)
If you recently purchased, or are considering purchasing a Vizio TV, you might be wondering, “where are Vizio TVs made”?
Where are Vizio TVs made?
Vizio TVs are designed in California, but they are made in Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Mexico. That’s because Vizio outsources manufacturing to companies like BOE, Foxconn, Innolux, KIE, Tonly, TPV and Zylux. These manufacturers purchase the necessary components and assemble Vizio Smart TVs within their respective facilities.
So while Vizio is an American publicly traded company and they are their own brand, all of their manufacturing is done outside of the United States.
More or less, just the design, marketing, and sales of Vizio TVs happens within the US.
(NOTE: all of the details in this article are sourced from a Vizio prospectus found here and from various SEC filings found here.)
Design
Vizio’s design team is headquartered at 39 Tesla, Irvine, CA 92618, USA.
Every Vizio TV is designed with two things in mind: customer experience and cost. That’s because Vizio’s entire brand was built around creating affordable, quality TVs using the latest and greatest technologies.
In order to keep costs down, Vizio outsources the manufacturing of its TVs, and the sourcing of all the necessary parts, to third parties.
The design team then collaborates very closely with those third-party manufacturers to engineer cost-effective designs for their TVs.
It’s important to note that “design” at Vizio is really just about how to best put parts together, affordably. Also, Vizio does not develop nearly any of the technology they incorporate into their TVs.
Instead, they depend on non-exclusive license rights from third parties for these technologies. Vizio does not own most of the IP (intellectual property).
Manufacturing
As mentioned, Vizio does not have any internal manufacturing or testing facilities/capabilities of their own – they rely 100% on third-party manufacturers to build, assemble, test, and package their TVs.
The majority of Vizio TVs are made by 7 manufacturing companies – BOE, Foxconn, Innolux, KIE, Tonly, TPV, and Zylux. These companies are located primarily in Asia – Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Mexico.
(Note: trade tensions in recent years between the US and China have forced Vizio to divert the majority of its manufacturing sites away from China)
Believe it or not, just three of these manufacturers accounted for 82% of all of Vizio’s inventory purchases in 2021!
Vizio relies heavily on these manufacturers to manage the prices paid for nearly all of the components found in their TVs – LCD & OLED panels, glass substrates, liquid crystal material, driver integrated circuits, polarizers, color filters, chipsets, etc.
Once the manufacturers finish buying all the parts, building, and testing a batch of Vizio TVs, they are then responsible for shipping those finished products to the United States, where they are ultimately sold.
The finished TVs land in US warehouses owned by the respective manufacturer before being shipped out to retail locations across the country.
Sales
Vizio sells its TVs to retailers, wholesale clubs, and directly to consumers all throughout the United States.
The largest sellers of Vizio TVs are Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart.
Did I mention they sell a lot of TVs? In Q2 of 2021 alone, Vizio shipped 1.1 million Smart TVs and they’ve sold over 80 million TVs to date!
It doesn’t hurt that Vizio holds the #1 or #2 HDTV shelf share at many of these retailers.
By selling into mostly large retailers, Vizio has been able to keep its costs and overhead quite low, which has translated to a more affordable consumer price tag.
Conclusion
While Vizio TVs are designed in the United States, they are actually made in several different countries: Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Mexico.
That’s because Vizio outsources 100% of its manufacturing to third parties such as BOE, Foxconn, Innolux, KIE, Tonly, TPV, and Zylux.
(Although recently Vizio has started to cut ties with Chinese manufacturers due to trade war disputes.)
Additionally, Vizio doesn’t own the majority of the technology in their TVs. Instead, they have non-exclusive licensing deals with the various owners of the IP.
Once the manufacturers finish making the TVs, they ship them to the US where Vizio sells them at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart.
To date, Vizio has sold over 80 million TVs and is valued at nearly 3.5 BILLION dollars!
It is incredibly impressive how quickly Vizio has grown. But hey, that’s what happens when you make a quality product, at a reasonable price!
FAQs
Is Vizio made by Sony?
No, Vizio is its own brand. Headquartered out of Irvine, California, Vizio outsources manufacturing to companies like BOE, Foxconn, Innolux, KIE, Tonly, TPV, and Zylux.
Is Vizio a good brand?
Yes, Vizio is a great TV brand. Vizio arguably offers the best “value” TVs on the market today. They make TVs with great quality pictures at affordable prices.
Is Vizio going out of business?
No, Vizio is not going out of business. They have sold over 80 million TVs and are valued at ~3.5 billion dollars.
Who are Vizio’s competitors?
The main competitors to Vizio TVs include Samsung, Sony, LG, TCL, and Hisense.
These are probably all brands you’ve heard of before or came across during your pre-purchase research phase.
It is really impressive how much market share Vizio has been able to take from quality brands like the ones named above.
By focusing on making quality, high-tech TVs that are affordable to the everyday person, Vizio has become an absolute giant in the TV market.
