Samsung is reportedly planning to pull back from the Chinese monitor market as part of a broader strategic shift.
Recently, word has been spreading through industry channels and the supply chain that Samsung Electronics is looking to strategically shrink its presence in China, with the monitor business being the main focus this time.
According to information put together by market research firm RUNTO (Lotus Technology), some of Samsung's key agents in China have already received notices to stop replenishing stock, and they're actively clearing out existing inventory. At the same time, offline stores - including 3C electronics and home appliance retailers - are gradually taking Samsung monitors off their shelves.
On the supply side, Samsung has noticeably cut back on component procurement orders for the Chinese market, and some partner factories have started adjusting their production schedules.
Monitors fall under Samsung's "black goods" division (along with TVs and other consumer electronics). RUNTO's data shows that Samsung's TV shipments in China have already dropped to just a few hundred thousand units per year and are basically fading out.
This latest development isn't coming out of nowhere. It fits with Samsung's actions in China over the past few years: closing its Huizhou phone factory in 2019, shutting down the Tianjin TV plant and Suzhou computer factory in 2020, transferring its Suzhou 8.5-generation LCD panel factory to TCL CSOT that same year, and skipping the China Appliance & Consumer Electronics Expo in 2026. So this feels more like the continuation of a long-term strategy that's already been approved at headquarters - now just being carried out through the channels, and not yet officially announced.
How Samsung is doing in the market right now
RUNTO figures show that China's total monitor shipments reached 25.6 million units in 2025. Samsung's share was under 3%, putting it toward the lower end of the mainstream brands.
That said, Samsung still holds up pretty well in the premium segment. RUNTO's online sales monitoring data indicates that roughly half of Samsung's monitor revenue in China last year came from products priced above RMB 3,000. In that high-end price band, Samsung accounted for 11.4% of sales value, making it one of the stronger players.
Overall, Samsung's monitor business in China was still profitable in 2025, with better margins than its TV or home appliance lines. The real money came from high-margin premium products like OLED, gaming monitors, and commercial displays.
In the online OLED monitor segment specifically, Samsung held about 13% of unit sales and nearly 15% of revenue value - still ranking in the top three, even if it slipped a bit from previous years.
Product-wise, Samsung has focused heavily on QD-OLED gaming monitors, backed up by high-end Mini LED models. This "high-margin + premium pricing" approach means they've largely stepped away from the low-end market, which helps them avoid brutal price competition in the mass segment.
In short, RUNTO sums up Samsung's monitor situation in China as: still making money overall, but losing market share, staying strong at the high end, and apparently being strategically let go.
Why the pullback?
If Samsung does scale back its monitor business here, it's basically a resource allocation decision at the global level. The company wants to concentrate on areas with higher technical barriers and better profits - like memory chips and high-end OLED displays - to improve its overall profitability worldwide.
In China, the monitor market is extremely competitive, channel costs are high, and Samsung's volume share is tiny (under 3%). Continuing to invest heavily doesn't make much financial sense anymore. Pulling back would let them save on R&D, marketing, and distribution expenses.
Domestically, Chinese brands have built a huge lead in mainstream sizes (like 27-inch and 24.5-inch), high-refresh gaming (180Hz/240Hz), and affordable Mini LED models. Samsung's data shows its share in the Mini LED segment fell sharply to just 2.7% in 2025, down 11 percentage points from the year before. Breaking through has become really tough.
What this means for the Chinese market
If Samsung steps back, it could open up several billion RMB worth of market space.
Local brands - especially those that have been investing heavily like TCL and Hisense - are likely to benefit. Both have strong supply chains thanks to their huge TV businesses and have sponsored major esports events (TCL with League of Legends, Hisense with Honor of Kings). Brands with solid supply chain backgrounds, such as HKC and KTC, have been performing well recently. True high-end domestic monitor brands are still relatively rare, so anyone who can successfully take over Samsung's premium positioning could gain both volume and better profits.
Older names like AOC, ASUS, and Xiaomi should also have a shot at picking up some of the slack.
On the supply chain side, component sourcing and manufacturing orders are expected to shift more toward local suppliers, which should help speed up domestic substitution of key parts.
Broader industry picture
This isn't just a Samsung story. Other international brands like LG have also been shrinking their non-core operations in recent years. In a highly competitive global consumer electronics market, the trend for multinationals is increasingly "focus on your strengths and cut the edges."
For China's monitor industry, Samsung's potential exit would push domestic substitution even faster - moving from being driven by policy to being driven purely by market forces. As local brands keep improving their technology and competitiveness, and Korean brands continue to retreat, market share should consolidate more quickly among Chinese players.
RUNTO says they'll keep tracking how this plays out, how domestic brands push into the high end, and any shifts in supply chain partnerships.
