A few days ago, Rong commented on the Japanese car in China’s“Depravity history”, did not expect, just within 48 hours, the Korean giant also raised a white flag.
On May 6, South Korea’s Samsung released a brief news release on its official website: All Samsung household appliances, including televisions, refrigerators, tumble washing machines, air conditioners, and large-screen monitors, will be suspended from sale in the Chinese mainland, all have withdrawn from the Chinese market. Samsung has cited“Rapidly changing market conditions”, but it is simply not rolling.
As of April 2026, Samsung’s TV market share in China is 3.62% , refrigerators 0.41% , washing machines 0.38% , basically out. In 2025, Samsung’s appliance division made a combined loss of about RMB945M, with China the main source of losses. In this context, rather than bite the bullet, as timely stop-loss, Samsung’s withdrawal is a helpless move, declaring the end of an era.
How Brilliant was Samsung?
In 2005, Samsung Electronics had nearly 20 per cent of the Chinese market, with roughly one in every five televisions sold in the country. Is it cheap? Of course not, older friends should remember that at that time, Samsung televisions easily tens of thousands of dollars A, refrigerators and washing machines are more than 30% more expensive than domestic. Foreign brands such as Samsung and Siemens focus on the high end of the market because they cater to the needs and psychology of Chinese consumers.
The first is face, then the Samsung TV is synonymous with consumption, a TV worthy of ordinary people half a year’s salary, living room put a Samsung TV, is equivalent to face. Why was Samsung able to do this? It did have some tricks up its sleeve.
The second was the technical bonus. For tvs, Samsung, the global leader in the TV industry, built an LCD production line in 1995 and produced the world’s first 40-inch LCD TV in 2001, eliminating the need for domestic“Big-ass tvs.”.
From 2005 to 2015, Samsung is the world’s largest supplier of LCD panels. Domestic tvs have to buy panels from Samsung. Samsung tvs comprehensively crush domestic tvs in picture quality and brightness. Refrigerator washing machine is the same, Samsung in refrigeration, fresh, all the leading design, domestic can only imitate. Samsung washing machine bubble net technology, air conditioning technology is the world’s first variable frequency.
Third, consumer tuyere. Since 2000, Chinese households have been replacing large-screen tvs, smartphones and home appliances on a large scale. Samsung has seized this opportunity to upgrade consumption, while domestic brands have not yet taken off and are generally in the middle and low end, samsung Electronics reaped the dividends of the times.
In this context, Samsung Electronics from 2005 to 2015 in the Chinese market. It became a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and reached the peak of its brand power, with sales exceeding 60 billion yuan in 2014.
Two, 10 years later, why is Samsung today?
The history of the development of domestic appliances, is a bitter history.
Before 2010, domestic home appliances had almost no core technology. The screen relied on Samsung, the compressor relied on Japanese, and the motor relied on imports. We could only assemble, imitate, and fight a price war, in the low-end market for a chance of survival, simply dare not compete head-on with Samsung.
Some people have calculated that a home-made TV will sell for 2,000 yuan, including 1,200 yuan for the panel. If we give it to Samsung or sharp, the cost of shell, circuit and labor is around 700 Yuan, and our profit is only 100 yuan. More angry is that when Samsung supplies the final word, the more busy season, he is more card your neck, at the same time arbitrary price increases, domestic manufacturers have suffering.
In 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) fined Samsung and six other panel companies 353 million yuan (US $45 million) for unfair competition by co-operating to raise prices and put pressure on China.
The Chinese won’t be locked out forever, and the breakout battle is the most familiar tactic.
Under the support of the state, Boe, Tcl huaxing hit hundreds of billions of funds to establish their own LCD production line, after 2015, our capacity is the first in the world, completely broke the Samsung panel monopoly; And Haier, the United States and other domestic brands continue to deep tillage refrigeration, motors and intelligent algorithms, a little bit to catch up with Japan and South Korea Technology. Coupled with Samsung Arrogance, has been using overseas closed system, did not keep up with the reform of China’s smart home, leading to slow product upgrading, high prices, channels atrophy, just step by step by domestic brand cut under the horse.
Samsung is not worse, is China’s household appliances to work hard, step by step to fill the short board, from looking up to catch up into a comprehensive lead, this is the new era of domestic products when self-reliance!
III. The rise of the nation is happening to you and me
Some people ask, when will the country revive? When will nations rise? In fact, a lot of things have happened without our knowledge, and we are all witnesses of history.
In the 1980s, Motorola was the poster child for mobile phones, which cost $10,000 to $20,000 each. That was $10,000 in the 20th century, our salaries were around $300.
At present, the price of smartphones in China has dropped below 1,000 yuan. We first roll the battery and memory, then roll the chip and screen. Major manufacturers are trying to cut costs and update technology, and prices are dropping. Chinese brands now account for about 40% of the global mobile-phone market, and about 90% of the world’s handsets are made in China.
China has, so to speak, single-handedly brought cheap, high-quality smartphones to its people and to poor people elsewhere in the world.
Look at the solar PV industry, it was once monopolized by the Western world, the price of solar PV was also high, until 2001, China targeted this piece of cake. From polysilicon to solar panel to solar cell, our approach is simple: mass production and a price war.
As the Chinese industry overcomes the technical difficulties of photovoltaic materials one by one, with the help of large-scale production, we produce 80% of the world’s polysilicon, 60% of the cells, 70% of the solar panel, the sky fell in the west.
The international price of polysilicon dropped 20-fold, to less than US $20 per kilogram. We now account for more than 80 per cent of the global PV market, and we have brought affordable products and services to every corner of the globe.
There are so many examples.
You’ve all eaten caviar. Until 2013, the price of caviar was comparable to gold, until China’s share of the global caviar market soared to 70 percent after the country broke through to farming young sturgeon in the wild, the U.S. caviar industry almost collapsed, and now you can eat caviar.
And then there’s the shield machine, which is an industrial tool that digs tunnels and bridges. In the 1990s, we imported two shield machines from Germany for $100 million each to build tunnels, but the technology was so tightly sealed that the curtains were drawn for repairs to prevent the Chinese from peeking in.
In 2003, as demand grew, we decided to develop our own. In 2008, the first chinese-made composite shield machine came off the production line. Up to now, China’s shield machine has occupied 90% of the domestic market share and 70% of the global market share, and the era of exorbitant profits for shield machines has been completely ended. The most advanced shield machines in foreign countries are now, the price tag is only $5 million.
There are so many examples. It can be said that, while we have achieved national rejuvenation, we have also smashed the days when the west counted money on patents, smashed technologies that are the pride of the rest of the world, and left 1.4 billion Chinese and 7 billion people in the world, 7 billion people in China and around the world.
This is the logic of China’s development.
China is the world’s only overwhelming advantage of the largest entire industrial chain, the single market; China has the United Nations provisions of the 41 industrial categories, 207 categories, 666 sub-categories, full coverage without gaps, china is the world’s largest producer of more than 220 of the world’s 500 major industrial products.
Having said that, are you still surprised that South Korea’s Samsung pulled out of the Chinese market? In the face of Haier, gree, Hisense, Xiaomi, the United States and other domestic brands of“Group Fight”, it can survive until now, Rong evaluation to give it a thumbs up, this is not generally strong.
Looking back, from being stuck in the neck to leading the world, from low-end assembly to setting standards, China has used decades of patience and struggle to show the world that the so-called blockade and monopoly have never been natural setbacks, as long as the Chinese people work hard, there is no unbreakable bureau, no way to catch up, but no one can block the pace of rejuvenation.
Homepage image from the Internet