Chinese mobile brands growing rapidly

Chinese mobile phone brands are building up their presence in Bangladesh, doubling their share within a year.

In 2017, Chinese brands accounted for 22 percent of the smartphones imported, up from 12 percent a year earlier, according to local importers.

All the global leading Chinese brands such as Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Tecno, and Vivo are doing business in Bangladesh and have gained much popularity.

The brands’ import more than doubled to 39.40 lakh units in 2017 from a year earlier, whereas the overall market grew only 11 percent to 3.44 crore, according to data collected by the top importers of the country.

The growth is even higher in case of basic phones: imports by Chinese brands surged 117 percent year-on-year to 21.68 lakh units last year.

Counterpoint, a Hong Kong-based technology market research firm, also came up with the similar numbers in the first three quarters of 2017. It has not published the full-year report yet.

“We did not get as a whole lot commercial enterprise as we had anticipated in 2017. Chinese corporations would possibly be growing here,” stated Jakaria Shahid, managing director of Edison Group, the father or mother company of cellular handset brand Symphony.

Shahid, additionally the universal secretary of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA), stated the pattern of the business is additionally changing in Bangladesh due to the fact of the advancement of new technologies.

Symphony, the market leader for the closing various years, is planning to set up a handset assembly plant in the country.

“Once we begin the assembling in our very own plant, the hole will be narrowed and Symphony will take hold of greater market share and it will sooner or later enhance the nearby brands’ position.”

Walton, some other local brand, has already started out assembling handsets on its personal however has now not been able to create plenty have an impact on in the market. Some different local manufacturers are planning to set up meeting plants.

In the smartphone segment, total imports remained flat in 2017.

Last year, importers added 80.99 lakh pieces of devices, up barely from 80.05 lakh gadgets from a year earlier. Some sixty two percentage of the gadgets in the market had been imported by means of local brands in 2017, down from 71 percent in 2016, seventy eight percentage in 2015, and 84 percentage in 2014.

Rezwanul Haque, chief government officer of Transsion Bangladesh Ltd, a Chinese-branded machine that launched in Bangladesh a few months ago, stated the essential difference is that Chinese businesses are spending closely to establish their manufacturers throughout the country.

“About eighty percentage of the international cell handsets are made in China. That’s why the country’s backward linkage is very strong, enabling it to offer awesome products to customers,” said Haque, also the instant previous widely wide-spread secretary of the BMPIA. Bangladesh has already come to be a widespread market for cell phones. At present, the market share of smartphones is at about 35 percentage and is set to soar this year following the launch of 4G.

The growth prospect wooed Chinese brands to Bangladesh in the last couple of years. Tecno, a popular brand of Transsion Company, and Vivo entered the market last year, following in the footsteps of Huawei, the market leader among Chinese brands, Oppo and Xiaomi.

Infinix also made a foray into the market at the end of 2016 but has failed to get much traction. Huawei has done significantly well in terms of boosting its market share, said Ziauddin Chowdhury, deputy country director of Huawei Consumer Business Group (Bangladesh). “Last year, our focus was to bring high-quality products to Bangladesh and take them closer to customers. We are happy that customers have responded positively,” Chowdhury said.

Currently, Huawei has 12 smartphones and a tablet in the market that support 4G and are capable of delivering improved video calling, speedy data transfer, and fast internet, he said. Market insiders said as 4G would lead the handset market in the coming years technological advancement will give Chinese brands an upper hand.