Huang Guangyu refuses to leave the table.

On April 29th, the Beijing Xibahe store of Gome Auto Market officially opened.

In the 38th year after the establishment of Gome, Huang Guangyu once again placed his bet on Beijing, a city he is familiar with.

Nearly four years have passed since his release from prison and his return to take the helm of Gome, when he declared that he would "revive Gome in 18 months."

Over the past four years, Huang Guangyu led Gome on a series of battles, just like in the early days of the century. However, the planned "revival" was not achieved, and the cumulative net loss reached a staggering 38.8 billion yuan.

However, this veteran in the business world, once known as a formidable figure, is still not willing to admit defeat.

"It's my habit when doing things. Once I've set a clear direction and have a general plan in mind, and I think there's about a 30% chance of success, I'll dare to take action."

This statement perfectly reflects Huang Guangyu's work style: being decisive and going all - in.

This belief helped Huang Guangyu evolve from a poor boy from Chaoshan who scavenged for a living to a "tough guy in the business world" whom even Dong Mingzhu respected.

But the same statement also led Huang Guangyu to take risks in the wild era, ultimately resulting in his imprisonment.

In November 2008, four months after reclaiming the title of China's richest man, Huang Guangyu was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of illegal business operations, insider trading, and bribery. He was also fined 600 million yuan and had 200 million yuan in property confiscated.

During his imprisonment, although Huang Guangyu was absent from the business world, his legend was everywhere. Relying on his wife, Du Juan, he was still able to direct Gome from prison until his early release in 2021 due to good behavior.

At that time, what lay before Huang Guangyu was a Gome on the verge of collapse.

Internet, new retail, short - video, live - streaming e - commerce, blockchain... During the years he lost his freedom, Gome missed countless booming trends. By the time he was released, the market had completely changed.

Nevertheless, in Huang Guangyu's view, he still held good cards, and it was not impossible for Gome to make a comeback.

So, not long after, he issued a military order to "restore Gome's original market position in the next 18 months." Gome's stock price soared from HK$1 to HK$2.5.

This shows that the market at that time also had high expectations for the return of this formidable figure.

Huang Guangyu proposed a very aggressive make - up plan, which, simply put, was: seize all the emerging trends.

The first thing he did to promote Gome's revival was to update its business format.

After missing the golden age of e - commerce development, Gome decided to use an app to make up for all the lost opportunities.

In February 2021, Gome App was officially renamed "Zhenkuaile App". Its business scope expanded from the single field of home appliances to all product categories, with a particular focus on the home improvement industry.

According to the plan, Gome aimed to transform from a giant in offline home appliances to an e - commerce platform on par with JD.com and Taobao.

The outside world thought that "Zhenkuaile" was taking too big a leap, but Huang Guangyu, either out of firm confidence or having no other choice, resolutely launched the initiative.

To promote "Zhenkuaile App", Gome made a big splash. It carried out a large - scale offline event called "Happy ZAO City" in six cities, including Beijing and Chengdu, and jointly created the "Super Music Festival" with iQiyi in July 2021.

Moreover, Huang Guangyu also hoped to lead Gome into the metaverse field through this app.

In 2021, Gome acquired an 80% stake in the VR home improvement company "Dabanjia" to enter the home improvement + metaverse business in line with its business development.

By 2022, Gome's metaverse plan had been upgraded to "opening 10,000 metaverse super - stores", and it also publicly recruited a "Metaverse Technology Development Director", indicating its long - term optimism about this plan.

At that time, Gome also dabbled in the booming live - streaming e - commerce.

In 2021, Gome added a live - streaming function to the complex features of "Zhenkuaile App".

However, the live - streaming business of "Zhenkuaile" never gained much popularity. Only 1,500 people watched the live - stream during the Double Eleven promotion that year.

This did not stop Gome from continuing to invest in the live - streaming business. In June 2022, "Zhenkuaile App" upgraded its live - streaming business to Channel F, also integrating the metaverse and home improvement businesses.

To promote the live - streaming business, Huang Xiuhong, the nominal president of Gome Group and Huang Guangyu's sister, even appeared in person to boost the popularity.

However, no matter how hard Gome tried, "Zhenkuaile App" showed no signs of improvement. By the end of 2021, after about a year of intense promotion, its average daily active users were only around 3 million.

After struggling to operate until 2023, instead of becoming the next JD.com or Taobao as expected, "Zhenkuaile App" became a big burden for Gome Group.

From e - commerce to the metaverse, from live - streaming to short - videos, "Zhenkuaile" wanted to get involved in everything but ended up in a mess.

During the years when the app was the main focus, Gome Group's net losses increased year by year, with a cumulative loss of over 38.8 billion yuan in four years, even worse than when Huang Guangyu was absent.

Huang Guangyu still has a keen sense of the times. Whether it was the transformation into a comprehensive platform, the bet on live - streaming e - commerce, or the exploration of the metaverse, almost every attempt by Gome was in the hottest sectors and trends.

But the more aggressively it tried to catch up, the harder it was to make up for the 13 - year gap.

In fact, when more than half of the "18 - month" plan had passed, Huang Guangyu had already realized that things were going wrong.

In the second half of 2022, Huang Guangyu stated in an open letter: "We underestimated the difficulties in implementation, and coupled with the long - term impact of the pandemic, there is a certain gap between the reality and this goal."

The bold claim of reviving Gome in 18 months was replaced by the new "1 + 1+1" strategy.

In 2023, "Zhenkuaile App" silently changed its name back to "Gome App", and the 18 - month online gamble ended in silence.

While Gome was aggressively expanding its online business on all fronts, its offline business, the foundation of the company, was on the verge of collapse.

In 2022, Gome's retail business revenue was only 1.792 billion yuan, a far cry from the 78.75 billion yuan in 2017.

By 2023, this figure had dropped to only 922 million yuan.

Huang Guangyu realized that if he didn't revitalize the offline business, Gome might be completely defeated.

But this was easier said than done. The drastic change in consumers' purchasing habits, combined with the impact of the pandemic, made it difficult for Gome's offline business to survive.

To preserve its strength, Huang Guangyu had to drastically shrink the scale, closing 86% of the stores and only keeping the influential ones in operation. Moreover, he finally admitted defeat: going back to the old way of doing home appliance business was a dead end.

Now, only new emerging trends can save Gome.

In 2023, Huang Guangyu took a fancy to the booming unmanned retail and personally led the team to build an unmanned retail business team. Not long after, he visited Le'erle, the leading enterprise in China's hard - discount supermarket chain, to explore the hard - discount field.

In April 2024, Gome officially launched its "instant retail" business and proposed the "6311N" model, which means a 6 - kilometer coverage, 3 - hour delivery, 1 warehouse per community, and multiple delivery channels.

Just as it integrated all online businesses with one app, Gome integrated its different new - retail business models into the "Gome Supermarket" upgraded by Huang Guangyu, as if trying to recreate "Zhenkuaile App" offline.

According to Gome's plan, the offline retail business centered around "Gome Supermarket" will open more than 10,000 stores in three years, becoming Gome's new stronghold.

Huang Guangyu clearly grasped the trend and key points again. Since the beginning of this year, JD.com, Alibaba, and Meituan have been fiercely competing in the takeaway and other related businesses. The core of their competition is the "instant retail" that offers closer, faster, and more diverse services. Instant retail is now widely regarded as the future growth point of the retail industry.

Although Huang Guangyu identified the trend and made the right layout, he still faced a desperate competitive environment.

Without online user traffic and with its offline business in decline, Gome doesn't even have the qualification to participate in the competition against multiple forces such as Meituan, JD.com, and Alibaba's local - life services: while competitors are striving for "half - hour delivery", Gome is still aiming for 3 - hour delivery.

Now, the online update information of Gome Supermarket has stopped at the end of 2023, but Huang Guangyu's efforts in the offline business have not ceased.

This time, he set his sights on another booming field, the new - energy vehicle sales, and put forward a grand goal: to create a Costco in the new - energy field and turn Gome into a car supermarket.

In April 2025, the long - rumored new business of Huang Guangyu, the Gome Smart Car Experience Hall, officially opened. The entire venue covers an area of 45,000 square meters. Its core selling point is to attract car manufacturers to settle in with an operating cost 60% lower than that of traditional 4S stores.

To facilitate car manufacturers and consumers, the Gome Smart Car Experience Hall has arranged facilities such as live - streaming rooms, battery - swapping stations, and test - drive areas, almost like a "Disneyland for new - energy vehicles".

Relying on Gome's influence, the Gome Smart Car Experience Hall has already attracted new - energy vehicle brands such as Xiaomi and Wenjie, as well as joint - venture brands like Maserati and BMW.

With the continuous rise of new - energy vehicles and the accelerating replacement of fuel vehicles, this has become Gome's most likely hope for a turnaround.

Huang Guangyu was only 51 years old when he was released from prison.

His 50s might be the prime age for an entrepreneur.

Zhong Shanshan in his 50s is waging a "century - long water war" across the country, and Wang Jianlin at the age of 50 just founded Wanda Film.

But 51 - year - old Huang Guangyu was facing a business environment he was completely unfamiliar with and a Gome on the verge of collapse.

Although Huang Guangyu never lost contact with the outside world during his 13 - year imprisonment, he was still in prison after all.

Therefore, there has always been a voice in the market suggesting that Huang Guangyu should sell everything and withdraw from the business world to enjoy life while Gome still has some value.

Based on Gome's situation when he was released and the wealth his family had accumulated, he could indeed choose to retire and enjoy the rest of his life. On the contrary, insisting on the so - called revival plan might lead to greater losses.

But the stubborn - tempered Huang Guangyu not only did not withdraw but also decided to fight back from the brink.

Unfortunately, he is almost fighting alone.

To make a comeback, he needs at least a strong team under his command.

There is no doubt about Huang Guangyu's sense of emerging trends. Some old employees of Gome recalled that Huang Guangyu put forward several bold and forward - looking plans right after his release.

However, many of Gome's veterans had difficulty understanding the plans of this "former leader" who had been away from the front - line for decades. They promised to implement them but always fell short in practice.

Huang Guangyu was extremely annoyed by this and personally fired a group of veterans and recruited a group of "professional" new employees.

But these capable new employees couldn't stand Huang Guangyu's "last - century management style" and chose to leave the team.

The team was constantly in flux, and the business advanced haltingly. Gome has spent several years in internal strife.

As a result, "Zhenkuaile App" ended up being a half - baked project, and Gome's offline supermarket also came to nothing.

In 2022, Gome employees who had been unpaid for several months finally couldn't bear it and rushed to Huang Guangyu's office to demand an explanation.

The once - richest man sat expressionlessly behind his desk, allowing the employees to vent their emotions.

After the "salary - demanding incident", Huang Guangyu might have really considered withdrawing.

During this period, he sold a large number of stocks and cashed out more than 2 billion yuan at once. Many rumors regarded this as a sign of "fleeing".

But not long after, he appeared again as Gome's leader at the launch meeting of Gome's unmanned retail project.

But facing a seemingly "hopeless battle", Huang Guangyu still refuses to admit defeat. Thus, there is his new attempt in the car - sales business, and we can often see on short - video platforms his