SHEIN is a unicorn company that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Particularly in 2024, its UK operations saw a pre-tax profit increase of fifty-six point five percent, with revenue surpassing two billion pounds. Globally, SHEIN’s total net sales also achieved significant growth in 2024, making it the “growth champion” in the industry. Its market share surpassed that of Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo, propelling it to become the world’s third-largest fashion retailer.
So, is this company, which originated in China, still a Chinese company?
SHEIN was established in 2008 in Nanjing, China, under the entity Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology Co., Ltd., founded by Xu Yangtian, a young man from Shandong, China. In 2017, SHEIN relocated its headquarters to Guangzhou, China, and established the entity Guangzhou SHEIN International Import & Export Co., Ltd.
At this point, SHEIN was still a purely Chinese company. However, by 2019, the Singapore-based company ROADGET BUSINESS PTE. LTD. was officially established and completed the formal procedures for entity change in 2021. Since then, this company has owned Guangzhou SHEIN International Import & Export Co., Ltd. and the SHEIN trademark intellectual property. Both the SHEIN website and app are operated under this Singaporean entity. Also in 2021, the original parent company of SHEIN, Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology Co., Ltd., had its business license deregistered, and founder Xu Yangtian no longer serves as the legal representative of any related companies in China.
In September 2024, SHEIN Group Vice Chairman Donald Tang publicly emphasized at the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit (GAIN Summit), “SHEIN is not a Chinese company; it is a Singaporean company that leverages China’s manufacturing and supply chain.” Tang stated that while SHEIN was born in China, it moved its headquarters to Singapore to become a global enterprise. Today, its customers span more than one hundred and seventy countries.
So, do you now have your own answer to the question of whether SHEIN is still a Chinese company?
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