Gome went from China's #1 electronics retailer to ¥538M revenue — 4,032 stores lost

Gome was once the most powerful retailer in China. Founded in 1987, it dominated the electronics retail market through aggressive pricing and rapid expansion. By 2010 it operated over 1,200 stores and was locked in a duopoly with Suning. In 2008 its founder was removed from leadership, and the company never found a successor who could restore its former strength.

The decline accelerated dramatically after 2021. E-commerce from JD.com and Alibaba had already eroded foot traffic, but the pandemic dealt a final blow. Gome attempted a pivot to online retail and livestream commerce, but these efforts failed to generate meaningful revenue. The company's store count collapsed from 4,195 in 2021 to just 163 by the end of 2024 — a loss of over 4,000 locations in three years.

By 2025, the business that once generated over ¥70 billion in annual revenue was reporting just ¥538 million in sales. Gross profit was a mere ¥25 million, representing a 4.65% margin. The company lost ¥59.44 billion that year, a slight improvement from ¥116.29 billion in 2024 but still catastrophic relative to its revenue base. Cumulative losses over the decline period exceeded ¥200 billion.

Gome's collapse is the most dramatic retail decline in modern Chinese business history. From China's top electronics chain with thousands of stores and a market cap of over HK$100 billion, it became a company with fewer than 200 locations, near-zero sales momentum, and losses that dwarfed its revenue.