#PeoplesDailyComments Why are Chinese mobile phones popular in India?

[onebyone]

As I’m a Chinese reporter based in India, many local taxi drivers would show me the Chinese-branded mobile phones that they are using. It is ordinary to see big ads with Indian celebrities endorsing Chinese mobile brands at airports, hotels, and even in remote rural areas. At the beginning of this year, I visited Bihar for an interview and found out that both sides of a street were occupied by ads of OPPO and VIVO, which impressed me deeply.

OPPO is reported to have received the permission from India to establish a factory in the country. It, therefore, becomes the fourth Chinese mobile brand that has its own factory in India, after VIVO, Xiaomi, and Huawei. China’s Xiaomi and Korea’s Samsung are currently the largest mobile phone brands in the Indian market, followed by Lenovo, VIVO and OPPO. Chinese brands have quickly got rid of the cheap tag since it entered the Indian market in 2014. The total sales volume accounts for more than a half of the mobile devices in the country, creating job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Indian people.

Although the number of registered user has surpassed 900 million, the penetration of smart phone is below 20%, creating high demand for smart phones. And as Indian brands are not competitive enough, foreign companies have got the chance to divide the market. According to a mobile phone manufacturer, Chinese mobile brands are popular because they are cost-effective, localized, and closely attached with users.

The Narendra Modi government has set the value-added tax as low as 12% and tariff as 0 for locally-made mobile phones to encourage foreign companies to invest and set up factories in India. With the prosperity of Chinese brands in India, phones that are “made in India” by Chinese companies are due to receive warm acceptance.

(Yuan Jirong)

 

[navtrek]

They are good phones and value for money. People can afford it.

 

[KapitaanAli]

Didn't read.
The answer is, they're cheap and the leading brands aren't bad.

The early phones of even Xiaomi were so terrible, but they learned fast.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Only an idiot would not buy chinese brand such as xiaomi,vivo,oppo,huawei honor and i certianly me myself do not want to be an idiot,they are cheap and great,buying chinese brand phone means saving money for ourselves...
if indian phones are cheaper and greater,there is also no obsticale at all for me to buy indian phone!
I have no problem with good products in best price,no matter where it comes from,maybe a little hesitated when am dealing with jap products for multiple obvious reasons but if really there is no chinese alternative and it is urgented needed, eventually i think i would buy jap one,but if there is chinese alternative, i would support chinese brand for sure....i think indians bros may think the same!

 

[Jugger]

I used to like Chinese phones very much, but since my huawei honor 6 plus stopped charging due to some battery issues 2 years after purchase, I have lost hope on the final quality of certain Chinese products.
Now I stick with the regular iPhone for my daily use.
Although not all Chinese products are crap, it all depends on the OEM in China that manufacturers these products.

 

[911]

They are popular and cheap. I have personally never bought a Chinese smartphone so not sure about the quality. I guess they are at par with bigger brands, specially new ones.

The Narendra Modi government has set the value-added tax as low as 12% and tariff as 0 for locally-made mobile phones to encourage foreign companies to invest and set up factories in India. With the prosperity of Chinese brands in India, phones that are “made in India” by Chinese companies are due to receive warm acceptance.

If it runs economy, why not?

 

[RowdyRathore]

BECAUSE they're better for the value

 

[andylrd]

They are good phones and value for money. People can afford it.

I used Nokia, Iphone, Samsung, now I have shifted to Vivo, the best for me so far (in using).
I guess I am going to stick on Chinese brands for good. Next will be Huawei, if they looks good.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Huawei UI need to be improved maybe coz i am not used to its hidden tactile pad,huawei brand is excellent but is too expensive,800 to 900usd for Mate 10though it is true very good phone.
Huawei honor is the best choice,i am using huawei honor 8=very good quality with very reasonable price!

 

[AndrewJin]

Differentiation is vital.

VIVO is doing great in india.
VIVO+OPPO for medium price range (indian website defines as 10000-20000 rupees )

xiaomi for 5000-10000 rupees (xiaomi's low-end is doing badly in China because this range has little market)

One Plus for >30000 rupees (defined as premium range in india)

Then, these brands are avoiding the price range <5000 rupees (basic smart phone + feature phone)
where india's local brands are doing pretty good.

 

[Sharky]

Cheap and use and throw. Indians are a suckers for "cheap and best". Chinese phone ate cheap and some have flagship technology. So it's a no brainer.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

I used to like Chinese phones very much, but since my huawei honor 6 plus stopped charging due to some battery issues 2 years after purchase, I have lost hope on the final quality of certain Chinese products.
Now I stick with the regular iPhone for my daily use.
Although not all Chinese products are crap, it all depends on the OEM in China that manufacturers these products.

2 years is long enough for a phone,my first phone is lenovo which i used 2 years during college and give it to my aunty,then it was nokia for 2 years,then samsung for 1 year(stolen in train station),then lenovo smart phone for the first time in 2013 for 1 year and given it to my uncle, later,and then lenovo again in2014 for 1year and then Coolpad for 1.1year,and then coolpad for another year,and then Letv phone for 0.8year given out as gift and now the huawei honor8 currently using

 

[AndrewJin]

There are nearly 650 million mobile phone users in India -- and over 300 million of them have a smartphone. For these users, Chinese players became the first choice this year as they launched devices with compelling features, thus dominating the budget and mid-range price segment in the country.

Chinese vendors captured 49 percent of the Indian mobile phone handset market in the first quarter of 2017 -- with a 180 percent (year-on-year) revenue growth -- threatening to wipe out domestic players from the overall handset segment.

Among the top Chinese brands, Xiaomi witnessed the biggest growth this year.

With a market share of 23.5 percent and having shipped 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter this year, Xiaomi became the fastest-growing smartphone brand with a growth rate of nearly 300 percent (year-on-year) in the third quarter this year.

According to IDC, Samsung had 23.5 percent market share in India, similar to Xiaomi, the Lenovo-Motorola combine was at 9 percent, Vivo at 8.5 percent and OPPO at 7.9 percent.

For Xiaomi, its Redmi Note 4 device that was launched in January at Rs 9,999 for the base model (2GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage) proved to be a game-changer and its best-selling smartphone too. The company shipped approximately four million units of the device in this quarter, said IDC.

Chinese brands like Huawei (which sells its youth-centric sub-brand Honor in India), Vivo, Motorola (a Lenovo brand) and OPPO's performance remained strong and contributed to more than half of the total smartphone shipments in the country.

Aiming to push its position up in the highly competitive Indian market, Honor launched flagship products at "unbeatable prices", like the highly-successful Honor 8 Pro (Rs 29,999) and Honor 7X (starting at Rs 12,999).

Vivo and OPPO's aggressive marketing spends also paid them hefty dividends. With smartphone growth nearing saturation in metros, Chinese players were also busy building their base in tier II and III cities.

When it comes to manufacturing in India, Xiaomi announced its third plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad Technology.

Spread across 230,000 square feet, the Noida unit is a dedicated facility for Xiaomi power banks where the Mi Power Bank 2i will be assembled. The company already has two smartphone manufacturing plants in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, where more than 95 percent of its smartphones sold in India are assembled locally.

Meanwhile, South Korean giant Samsung also announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant to double the production capacity of both mobile phones and consumer electronics.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country. With this decision, OPPO became the first smartphone company to get this opportunity in India.

The Chinese players also handled the post-demonetisation ripples well with high decibel marketing, increased credit line to distributors and efficient channel management.

Global vendors, led by Samsung, were able to withstand the aggressive Chinese players post-demonetisation owing to their good distributor coverage and penetration in the Indian market.

Aiming to gain a further foothold in the offline smartphone market, Xiaomi opened its first "Mi Home" store in Bengaluru in May and plans to add 100 such stores in the next two years.

Similarly, Lenovo-owned Motorola opened six "Moto Hubs" in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and plans to open 50 more by the end of this year.

Huawei's sub-brand Honor announced opening four more exclusive service centres in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Its service centres are already operating in 17 cities.

India this year surpassed the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China. Yet, according to Counterpoint Research, only one-fourth of India's population uses smartphones, thus making the country an attractive destination for Chinese players in the mobile ecosystem.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

mine is white though

 

[AndrewJin]

Cheap and use and throw. Indians are a suckers for "cheap and best". Chinese phone ate cheap and some have flagship technology. So it's a no brainer.

Poor indians can choose indian brands which dominate <5000 rupees range.
I think One Plus (>30000 rupees) is too expensive for indians.
They don't really have to sacrifice too much just for a smart phone.
Things like food and clothes are vital for them.