How could anyone go to prison and there are still 20 billion!
This person who "can also be on the rich list in prison" is Huang Guangyu.
At his peak, he became "China's richest man" three times. Even if he is in prison for "economic crimes", he still has 22.5 billion in his account!
How did he do it?
And who would have thought that immediately after being released from prison in '21, he participated in a conference call with global investors. Is this to continue to march to the richest man? Can Huang Guangyu make a comeback?
A self-made appliance empire
Huang Guangyu is not a "little son" from a wealthy family. He is a self-made man who has become a business legend on his own.
He was born in 1969 in a peasant family in Shantou. His father's family was a landlord, and later he took refuge in a family surnamed Zeng to learn to squeeze persimmon oil, and later "joined" this family.
It is said that Huang Guangyu used to follow his mother's surname Zeng, and it was not until 1991 that he took his father's surname Huang.
Huang Guangyu's mother's family was once a famous overseas Chinese businessman, but it gradually declined due to social unrest. When he was born, his family was already destitute.
When Huang Guangyu was a child, he began to pick up waste electrical appliances, old newspapers and other saleable things along the street with his brother Huang Junqin to subsidize the family.
When he was 17 years old, he and his brother Huang Junqin went to Inner Mongolia to do business with a batch of second-hand electrical appliances purchased from coastal areas.
This trip gave the brothers a taste of business and laid the foundation for their business empire.
In 1987, 26-year-old Huang Guangyu and his brother chose to continue in the electrical appliance business, and they officially founded "Gome Electric" in a small shop of 100 square meters in Beijing.
At that time, the home appliance market was still a blue ocean, and Huang Guangyu's biggest advantage was that he could introduce some trendy electrical products from overseas at relatively affordable prices.
They adopted a "small profit but quick turnover" strategy that is different from most merchants, and they were also one of the first merchants to use newspapers for advertising, and these avant-garde marketing methods make Gome stand out from its peers.
Huang Guangyu has built Gome into a well-known brand, with branches all over the country, leading the new trend of home appliance retail.
By 1992, Gome had developed into a large-scale chain electrical appliance store and became a pioneer in China's chain business model.
With the take-off of China's economy, the consumer demand for household appliances is also growing, and Gome Electric Appliances is gradually moving towards the peak.
From the top to the bottom
In 2004, Huang Guangyu's Gome had more than 330 chain stores in 38 cities across the country, and its business territory spread all over the country, becoming a "giant" in the home appliance retail industry.
Also in this year, according to the data, Huang Guangyu had personal assets of 43 billion yuan, and he topped the Hurun Report for the first time and officially became "China's richest man".
In 2005 and 2008, he once again won the top spot on the Hurun rich list, and his personal wealth rose all the way.
At that time, Huang Guangyu was the "Chinese Bill Gates" of multimedia. He strictly controlled the home appliance channel, and the manufacturer did not dare to go against his pricing wishes.
Industry insiders commented that the reason why Huang Guangyu was able to make a fortune was largely due to his accurate grasp of market demand.
When most of his peers were implementing the traditional model of "high-price shopping", he took the lead in introducing the Internet thinking of "low-price traffic".
He used a low-price strategy to attract consumers to the door, grabbed a large number of user traffic, and then asked suppliers and manufacturers to make profits after accumulating enough scale.
Huang Guangyu's impact on the home appliance retail industry is far-reaching. A senior analyst once said that if there was no Huang Guangyu, it is likely that there would be no rapid rise of today's domestic home appliance brands, and he is a pioneer in China's home appliance industry.
Under the leadership of Huang Guangyu, domestic home appliance brands broke the monopoly of foreign brands for the first time and gained a firm foothold in the domestic market.
Even in the face of the impact of imported electrical appliances from the United States on Gome, Huang Guangyu can confidently say "You are very big in the world, but you will be small when you enter the Chinese market, I ignore you, and you will not be able to catch up with me until five years later".
In addition to the success of his marketing strategy in the mall, Wong was also a philanthropist at the time.
He generously donated money at the junctures of hometown construction, SARS anti-epidemic, earthquake relief and so on. As of September 2013, Huang Guangyu has donated more than 100 million yuan in cash.
But just when Huang Guangyu was at his best, he fell into the scandal of "economic crime". The popular business star fell to the bottom in an instant.
In November 2008, there were news reports that Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome, was arrested for economic crimes. Subsequently, more crimes of Huang Guangyu were exposed, including embezzlement and bribery, and stock market manipulation.
In 2010, Huang Guangyu was sentenced to 14 years in prison. After Huang Guangyu was imprisoned, Gome fell into an unprecedented downturn.
According to public data, in 2008, Gome's annual turnover was as high as more than 120 billion yuan, but in 2018, the turnover was only 64 billion yuan, a drop of nearly half.
And Suning, the opponent that Huang Guangyu never looked at back then, has now surpassed Gome, and its market value is 12 times higher than Gome. Many people believe that Gome, which has lost Huang Guangyu, the "chief helmsman", will completely decline.
Some analysts pointed out that the only thing that can reverse the decline of Gome may be Huang Guangyu's comeback. But it is doubtful that a man with a serious crime can be reinvigorated.
However, in the days when Huang Guangyu was imprisoned, his wife Du Juan has been sticking to Gome, waiting for his return after being released from prison.
The heroes are back
Although serving many years in prison, Huang Guangyu has not disappeared from the public eye.
When the 2019 Hurun Report was announced, Huang Guangyu's name was on the list again. With a personal worth of 22.5 billion yuan, he is ranked 149th on this authoritative rich list.
How exactly did Huang Guangyu maintain his assets during his imprisonment, and he never seemed to have completely lost control of Gome.
According to sources, Huang Guangyu did not cut off contact with Gome's top management when he was in prison, and he continued to control the company's operations with letters.
And Huang Guangyu not only did not lose his influence in Gome, but his business territory even expanded in prison.
Huang Guangyu, who is in prison, once bought the shares of two home appliance sales websites for 90 million Hong Kong dollars through his subsidiaries.
Later, Gome underwent a series of changes in legal representatives. At the time, some people speculated that this was probably an advance for Huang Guangyu, so that he could quickly regain control of Gome after he was released from prison.
On April 1, 2019, April Fool's Day, a rumor that "Huang Guangyu has been released from prison" caused an uproar online. The stock price of Gome's listed companies rose sharply for two consecutive days.
While the "2019 release from prison" is fake news, Huang did receive repeated commutations of his sentence between 2012 and 2016 for his good behavior in prison. On February 16, 2021, Huang Guangyu was officially released.
Huang Guangyu, who walked out of prison, did not do too much repairing, but couldn't wait to return to his job at Gome.
On April 7, 2021, after being released from prison for less than two months, Huang Guangyu attended a conference call with global investors held by Gome.
At the meeting, Huang Guangyu analyzed the two major opportunities for Gome's retail in the future, and gave a boost to all Gome's investors. The meeting also marked his official return.
Huang Guangyu's return to the United States has given a huge shock to the entire business community. Everyone wants to know whether Huang Guangyu can bring Gome back to glory after reappearing.
However, it is not easy for Gome to climb back to the top from the bottom, and Huang Guangyu's more than ten years in prison have caused Gome to miss many development opportunities in the Internet era, while its competitors have grown rapidly in this decade.
Now three years have passed since Huang Guangyu was released from prison, and Gome Electric still seems to be silent.
The business tycoon, once known as the "idol of the times", must regain his former energy, and at the same time learn the lessons of his imprisonment and operate legally in order to prove his extraordinaryness once again.
The author thinks
Huang Guangyu, who came out of a poor and backward small fishing village, founded the well-known brand of Gome Electric Appliances with his unique vision, and once became the richest man in China.
But greed led him to the abyss. He was imprisoned on multiple charges, which nearly destroyed the business empire he had worked so hard to build for years.
However, Huang Guangyu is still strong in prison, secretly accumulating strength, waiting for the moment of the king's return. Let's wait and see if Huang Guangyu can come back with Gome Electric!
Information sources:
1. Phoenix.com "Huang Guangyu Officially Released! When Will Gome Be "Really Happy"?"
2. People's Daily Online "Huang Guangyu Topic"
3. Hurun Report "Hurun List"