Startup Failures in China

The EV division of Evergrande raised 9.7B dollars, built 14 factories, and delivered fewer than 1,400 cars before the parent company defaulted on 300B in debt.

Hotbit froze millions of users' funds in 2023, blaming a criminal probe into a former partner for its sudden shutdown.

Subsidizing drivers to compete with Lalamove burned through $120M with no viable exit.

State-backed legal AI giant couldn't outlast its parent company's regulatory delisting spiral.

CEO arrested in China, keys taken, $220M in user funds gone forever.

China's esports streaming IPO raised $775M — regulators killed the merger that could have saved it.

China's used-car unicorn IPO'd on NASDAQ for $225M and then unraveled via fraud allegations.

China's largest P2P lender. Regulators eliminated P2P. -95% from peak.

Tencent-backed gaming companions app hit 20M users, then regulators decided the model was illegal.

China's $3B fashion social platform IPO'd on NYSE and then watched Douyin steal its entire business model.

A cross-border payments darling that couldn't survive tightening rules and IPO rejection.

China's Discord challenger raised $35M but couldn't crack its home market before funding dried up.

A $1.4B fashion social commerce IPO reduced to pennies by the rise of Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

Built a crypto metaverse in a country that just banned all crypto.

China's property market collapse dragged its largest online real estate platform down with it.

Outgunned by ByteDance and Kuaishou subsidies, this social commerce startup never stood a chance.

China's membership commerce platform IPO'd on NASDAQ and was fined for running a pyramid scheme.

China online grocery unicorn that raised $900M, listed on Nasdaq, and collapsed in July 2022 when cash ran out.

The Chinese crypto exchange that suspended withdrawals and blamed it on a "system upgrade"

Regulators shut down Waterdrop's core user funnel just six months after its NYSE IPO.

GoGoVan's logistics platform, rebranded Lalamove, that retreated from 300+ cities after China regulatory pressure.

Tencent backed this WeChat commerce pioneer, then built a better solution internally.

Didi defied Beijing to IPO on Wall Street—and paid with its existence.

China's beloved indie music radio lasted 14 years before licensing fees made survival impossible.

China's fashion social commerce platform. Pinduoduo and Douyin destroyed it.

China's original short-video king had 300M users — then Douyin arrived and erased it.

China's freight unicorn grounded by cybersecurity regulators the same week as its IPO.

Beijing's double-reduction policy killed a $3B edtech empire overnight.

The Chinese streaming giant that became an EV and smartphone conglomerate, collapsed under $6B of debt, and whose founder fled to the US.

China's Uber. $73B IPO. Chinese regulators destroyed it in 48 hours.

Banned from accepting new users three weeks after its own NASDAQ IPO.

A $7B NYSE-listed tutoring empire lost 70% of its value in a single trading day.

The luxury EV startup backed by FAW and Tencent that halted production in July 2020 and declared bankruptcy without delivering a single car.

FCoin's 'trans-fee mining' innovation was a debt time bomb that exploded, stranding $130M in user funds.

China's premium dockless bike leader, acquired by Meituan for $2.7B and quietly wound down.

Weibo's own livestreaming app failed to survive TikTok Live — then got absorbed by its parent.

ZAO got 8M downloads in 48 hours — then China's regulators shut it down just as fast.

Fabricated 40% of revenue. Still has 10,000 stores.

China's brightest AV startup destroyed itself in a catastrophic public co-founder war.

Yellow bikes everywhere. $2.2B raised. 12M users formed a refund queue that never moved.

Wang Sicong burned $180M of Wanda family money trying to beat Huya and Douyu at livestreaming.

A NASDAQ-listed Chinese sports social app that became a penny-stock ghost.

China's fashion photo app raised $150M and then disappeared into WeChat's shadow.

Raised $15M in 24 hours to kill WeChat — DAU fell 95% within 30 days of launch.

China's Tinder sold for $760M and was pulled from app stores by regulators within a year.

A social media platform where users created and shared short lip-sync music videos.

Shenzhen e-scooter brand couldn't survive Xiaomi and domestic price wars

Chinese knowledge podcast empire that raised $80M at $700M valuation and was shut down by content regulators.

Chinese budget EV maker survived only through Stellantis bailout after brutal price war

Hardware-focused accelerator in Hong Kong that lost its identity as Shenzhen became the global hardware hub.

China TripAdvisor swallowed by Ctrip and COVID simultaneously

Ucommune raised $800M to become China WeWork — then WeWork itself collapsed and Ucommune delisted from NYSE in 2022 after losing 98% of its market cap

Southeast Asian peer-to-peer crypto on/off ramp that raised $27M and exited markets under Hong Kong licensing pressure.

Vietnam largest edtech company raised $50M to build the Coursera of Southeast Asia and collapsed when COVID exposed the fraud in its student enrollment numbers.

Chinese personal mobility hardware giant that acquired Segway then watched the market evaporate as sharing schemes flopped and e-scooter bans spread.

The 15 billion dollar edtech unicorn that was erased by a single government policy

The Chinese telemedicine unicorn that IPO at 6.8 billion dollars and has lost 95 percent of its value

Chinese SaaS recruiting platform that raised $100M but could not survive the tech hiring freeze.

Yitu Technology built world-class facial recognition AI for Chinese smart cities and hospitals — then the US Entity List cut off its chip supply, its Hong Kong IPO collapsed, and the company entered a slow zombie death from 2021.

Pioneer Chinese internet gaming company that dominated the PC online game era and was destroyed by the mobile gaming revolution it failed to pivot into.

The homework help giant that raised 2.35 billion dollars and was shut down by a government memo

Chinese peer-to-peer lending marketplace that raised 220 million dollars backed by Standard Chartered before Chinese regulators banned P2P lending outright.

Hong Kong logistics app crushed by its own merger partner

China's enterprise AI caught in the 2021 regulatory wave that froze AI product launches across the country

One regulatory announcement in July 2021 destroyed 17Zuoye and its $350M investment overnight — the Chinese government banned for-profit K-12 tutoring and ended an entire sector