Samsung Electronics has announced that it will stop selling all home appliances, including TVs and monitors, in the Chinese market. However, the company will continue to provide after-sales service to customers who have already purchased Samsung products.
The products that will be discontinued include TVs, monitors, large commercial displays, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, washing and drying machines, clothing care machines, speakers, projectors, vacuum cleaners, and air purifiers.
Samsung stated that even though sales will be stopped, the company will provide the same after-sales service to customers who have already purchased products. The customer service channel will remain open, and the after-sales service center will continue to provide services. If any performance issues arise during use, the authorized service center will detect and troubleshoot the problem, and the company will provide corresponding treatment according to the three-package regulations.
In response to the question of whether the mobile phone business will also exit the Chinese market, Samsung said that mobile phone products will continue to be sold normally.
Thanks to the significant growth of its semiconductor business, Samsung Electronics’ first-quarter performance was impressive. On April 7, Samsung Electronics released its unaudited earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2026, with consolidated operating profit expected to reach 57.2 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 755%. This achievement not only broke the company’s quarterly profit record but also surpassed the 43.6 trillion won operating profit for the whole of 2025, making it the most explosive single-quarter profit performance in Korean corporate history.
Among them, the semiconductor business (DS department) achieved revenue of 81.7 trillion won in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 225%, and operating profit reached 53.7 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 47.82 times, accounting for 93.4% of the company’s total operating profit.
However, due to the impact of rising storage chip prices, the company’s mobile phone, TV, and home appliance businesses showed signs of weakness. According to the financial report, the DX department (Device Experience department, responsible for mobile phones, TVs, and home appliances) achieved revenue of 52.7 trillion won in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of only 2%, and operating profit was 3.0 trillion won, a year-on-year decrease of 38%. The key reason for the significant decline in profit was the rapid increase in the cost of purchasing semiconductors, including storage chips, which eroded profits.
In the first quarter, the revenue of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display (VD) and Home Appliance (DA) businesses was 14.3 trillion won, a year-on-year decrease of 1% and a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 3%, with an operating profit of 0.2 trillion won, a year-on-year decrease of 33.3%. Among them, the VD business achieved improved profitability by focusing on high-end/large-size TVs and resource optimization, but the DA business had limited profit growth due to cost pressure and tariff impacts.
To address the decline in home appliance businesses, Samsung Electronics has begun to implement a “selective and concentrated” strategy to reduce costs and increase efficiency. One of the measures is to exit the Chinese TV and home appliance retail market. Lee Jae-seung, head of Samsung’s Visual Display business, has publicly stated that “the difficulties of the Chinese business are a fact,” and “we are reviewing related businesses in various forms and are currently promoting them.”
In recent years, the home appliance market has slowed down. According to data from Ovi Cloud, the domestic home appliance (excluding 3C) retail market size reached 893.1 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%. Customs data showed that China’s home appliance exports reached 96.233 billion US dollars in 2025, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%.
Under this background, the performance growth of domestic home appliance leading enterprises is facing greater pressure. According to annual report data, in 2025, Gree Electric’s net profit decreased by 9.89% to 29.003 billion yuan; Haier Smart Home’s net profit was 19.553 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.39%; and Hisense Home Appliances’ net profit decreased by 4.82% to 3.187 billion yuan.
The “2026 China Home Appliance Retail and Innovation White Paper” released by Ovi Cloud shows that as subsidy policies enter a normalized and precise stage, the marginal effect of policies will gradually appear, and the direct driving effect on the market will tend to be stable. This means that in the future, the growth of the industry will put higher demands on enterprises’ product innovation speed and scenario penetration power in a “no-subsidy” environment.
The white paper believes that the home appliance industry is transforming from a traditional manufacturing industry to a data-driven, experience-oriented, and eco-friendly intelligent industry. Only enterprises that truly understand users, deeply cultivate scenarios, and create value can be reborn in differentiation and rise in reconstruction.
