American Companies That Failed in China
For decades, China has been a top priority for American companies looking to expand.
This is because the country’s middle class is simply enormous, growing from 3.1% to 50.8% of the country’s total population between the years 2000 and 2018. According to Brookings, there are now at least 700 million people in China’s middle class, and this group has never had more disposable income to spend on consumer goods and services.
Despite the size and potential of the market, China is not an easy place for foreign businesses to enter. As this infographic shows, many of America’s biggest names eventually admitted defeat.
See our full article on visualcapitalist.com
Dataset
Company | Enter Date | Exit Date | Tenure in months |
---|---|---|---|
eBay | July 2003 | December 2006 | 41 |
Amazon | August 2004 | July 2019 | 178 |
Yahoo! | September 1999 | November 2021 | 266 |
Best Buy | May 2006 | March 2011 | 58 |
The Home Depot | December 2006 | September 2012 | 69 |
January 2006 | March 2010 | 50 | |
Forever 21 (1st attempt) | June 2008 | June 2009 | 12 |
Forever 21 (2nd attempt) | December 2011 | April 2019 | 88 |
Forever 21 (3rd attempt) | August 2021 | Ongoing | Ongoing |
Groupon | March 2011 | June 2012 | 15 |
Uber | July 2014 | August 2016 | 25 |
Macy's | August 2015 | December 2018 | 40 |
February 2014 | October 2021 | 92 |
Data sources
Dates were gathered from various media reports and sources. There may be small deviations from when a company actually entered or exited.