Once China’s richest man, Gome founder Huang Guangyu hopes e-commerce can revive floundering electronics empire
- Gome’s founder announced ambitious expansion plans in bricks-and-mortar shops and entertainment offerings in its app
- After being surpassed by Suning.com, JD.com and Alibaba, Gome faces a tough challenge to regain ground lost after its founder was sent to prison for insider trading
In his first public appearance since rejoining the company, Huang expressed confidence during a Gome global investor call on Wednesday night about
“We’re open in both mindset and strategy. No one can kill the other. As long as the business direction and strategy are right, constraints from others will be temporary,” Huang said. “We see [Pinduoduo and JD.com] as mature sales platforms; we can go to them to sell and attract traffic, and they can also cooperate with us.”
The electronics giant revealed plans to expand its offline stores to more than 6,000 locations from its current 3,400 over the next 18 months. The company is also looking to use entertainment and social networking to bolster its app, Zhenkuaile, and increase the number of monthly active users from 40 million to 100 million in the same period.
Huang said he wants Gome’s consumers to participate in and share in-app entertainment and to think of the shopping experience as having fun.