Recent market reports indicate that Samsung Electronics is planning to gradually exit its home appliance and television sales operations in mainland China within this year, with the final plan expected to be finalized no later than April. This move is interpreted as an inevitable outcome amidst intensifying competition in the Chinese market. Facing a dual squeeze from domestic manufacturers on both cost-effectiveness and quality, the operating environment for foreign brands has become exceptionally severe.
The core driver behind this potential change lies in the relative decline in price competitiveness. Local manufacturers represented by Hisense, Xiaomi, and TCL have not only solidified their cost advantages in the mid-to-low-end markets but also achieved technological breakthroughs in high-end product lines, leading to extreme compression of survival space for imported brands in China. Public industry data shows that the domestic TV shipment scale in 2025 has approached 33 million units, while the combined share of overseas brands remains under one million units. Meanwhile, the entire Chinese home appliance retail market excluding 3C accessories reached a volume of nearly 900 billion yuan in 2025, with the top three players Midea, Haier, and Gree sharing over 60 percent of the market.
Specific channel performance more intuitively reflects the competitive landscape. Entering 2026, statistics as of early April show that Samsung's market share in offline color TV channels was approximately 3.62 percent, ranking fifth; while in the refrigerator and washing machine sectors, its shares have dropped to 0.41 percent and 0.38 percent respectively, plummeting to rankings beyond 14th. For comparison, industry insiders recall that during its peak period around 2014, Samsung's annual mobile phone sales in China exceeded 20 billion US dollars, but it is believed that in its 2026 sales guidance, the expected target for color TV and white goods business is less than one-tenth of the historical peak.
Despite facing contraction in sales, Samsung does not intend to immediately close all operations in China. Current planning leans towards retaining Chinese production bases for products such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners, shifting their function completely from domestic sales focused to serving the global supply chain, i.e., continuing to operate as an export center for Chinese manufacturing. This means that while store sales may terminate, the Made in China label will continue through exports. Since establishing its presence in China in 1992, this 34-year journey of localized sales may come to an end.
Regarding widespread speculation online about the exit, Samsung Electronics adopted a cautious stance in its statement, stating that the group would regularly review its global structure according to changes in the business environment, but official remarks still emphasize that no decision has been made regarding whether to fully divest China home appliance sales business. However, combining its consecutive absences from important industry exhibitions and clear signs of internal resources tilting towards storage chips and semiconductor departments, the company's overall strategic shift is already a fait accompli. Analysts believe that this shift from direct sales to an agency model and attempts at software-defined hardware deeply reflect that foreign brands in China's consumer electronics field are gradually retreating to the second tier, while also indirectly confirming the comprehensive rise of China's local industrial chain.
