Reported by NUPIAO staff
On July 28, the verified account “Black Shark Xirui,” described as a technical support engineer at Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd., announced, “Due to a deep adjustment of our business structure, we are officially stopping after-sales repair and related services for our phone category as of today. Thank you all for your companionship and support along the way!” This means that users still using Black Shark phones will no longer be able to get them repaired through official channels, leaving only third-party services or DIY options.
On July 29, NUPIAO reached out to customer service representatives at Black Shark’s official JD.com and Tmall flagship stores. Both stores confirmed that they no longer sell Black Shark phones, focusing instead on peripherals like cooling back clips, gaming headsets, and power banks.
When asked about how to repair previously purchased phones, a JD.com store customer service rep didn’t directly say official repairs were unavailable. Instead, they suggested providing an order number and model to contact a phone business specialist for assistance.
NUPIAO noticed on Black Shark’s official website that, while the homepage still lists the Black Shark 5 Pro phone, clicking the image redirects users to the same JD.com store. Meanwhile, the “Mail-In Repair” page on the site, which previously linked to the “Black Shark Mall,” now shows a “Website Connection Timeout” error.
Just on June 23, Black Shark released an announcement about server upgrades and service migration for the Black Shark community, permanently closing access to the original community. All user posts, model-specific discussions, and feedback sections were taken down, with content and user data gradually integrated into the “Black Shark Gear Box” app. At the time, the market widely saw this community shutdown—a key hub for brand-fan interaction—as a clear sign of the phone business contracting.
Looking back, Black Shark was once a rising star in the gaming phone scene. Public records show that Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in August 2017, with its core founding team coming from Huawei’s terminal division. Early on, it got a major investment from Xiaomi’s Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital, making it a key vertical hardware brand in Xiaomi’s ecosystem. In April 2018, Black Shark launched China’s first professional gaming phone, the original Black Shark, featuring a dedicated VC liquid cooling system, side-mounted gaming shoulder buttons, and a custom JOY UI for esports. Xiaomi founder Lei Jun even showed up to support the launch.
Over the next few years, Black Shark kept a steady pace of releasing two new models annually. The Black Shark 3 series teamed up with Tencent Games to optimize frame rates for mobile games, and the Black Shark 5 series—with 120W fast charging and a dual VC reverse gravity cooling system—became the brand’s final flagship model. The Black Shark 5 series, launched in 2022, was its last new phone; the planned Black Shark 6 series was eventually canceled and never hit the market.
According to a 2019 IDC report, while the overall phone market shrank that year, the gaming phone segment grew 50% compared to 2018, with total sales exceeding 1 million units. Black Shark led with a 47% market share, followed by Nubia Red Magic at 39% and Asus ROG at 14%.
But after that peak, a mix of internal and external factors pushed Black Shark downhill. One industry insider noted that the gaming phone niche has a natural demand ceiling. As regular smartphones gradually added high-refresh-rate screens, better cooling, and powerful chips, the hardware gap between gaming phones and mainstream flagships kept narrowing. The core user base willing to pay extra for esports-focused designs and shoulder buttons turned out to be quite limited.
Meanwhile, after Xiaomi launched its own Redmi K gaming series, the company funneled more resources toward its in-house brand, steadily reducing supply chain, channel, and technical support for Black Shark. Lu Weibing, who had just been promoted to Xiaomi Group president, even said while promoting the Redmi K60 series, “In 2023, you no longer need an esports phone.”
On the capital front, Black Shark faced two major setbacks. In 2022, rumors swirled that Tencent planned to acquire Black Shark for 2.7 billion yuan to pivot the brand into VR and metaverse hardware, but the deal fell through, cutting off a crucial funding source. In April 2025, Xiaomi’s Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital fully exited Black Shark’s shareholder list, severing their capital ties. Xiaomi Mall and Xiaomi Youpin then removed all Black Shark phone products, essentially wiping out sales channels.
According to Tianyancha business records, on July 1 this year, the Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone Market Supervision Bureau placed Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. on its list of abnormal operations due to “inability to contact via registered address or business location.” The company’s current legal representative is Gao Liming, with zero insured employees. Its controlling shareholder is Nanchang Yinzhong Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership), holding 53.0819%. The other two major shareholders are Nanchang Jinkai Capital Management Co., Ltd. and Nanchang Jinsha Technology Partnership, with 26.5975% and 20.3207% stakes, respectively.
The actual controller of Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. is Wu Shimin, the founder of Black Shark Technology. He previously served as president of Huawei’s mobile broadband terminal product line, where he oversaw the Huawei Maimang/G series phones, which once set records with single-model sales exceeding 10 million units.
Notably, in January 2023, Black Shark was accused of failing to pay layoff compensation. According to NUPIAO’s sources, this compensation involved around 78 million yuan. In August 2022, the company had already laid off staff, slashing its workforce from over 1,100 to just over 100, with the internet team reduced to a few dozen people handling operations and maintenance. Another 30 or so people on the peripherals team were, along with the business, “sold” to Shenzhen Mingyuan Game Co., Ltd.
Today, Black Shark’s business focus has fully shifted to gaming peripherals and trendy accessories. The brand’s official WeChat account recently announced it will attend the 2026 ChinaJoy, showcasing new cooling solutions and audio peripherals. Phones are now a thing of the past.
