Chinese smartphone makers continue to tighten their stranglehold over the Indian market by nibbling away market share of existing players, especially Indian brands, and they have collectively garnered a market share of 50% while the share of Indian brands narrowed to 14% from 33% a year ago. Leading brands such as Xiaomi and Oppo added over US$ 2 billion of sales in India.
After equalling the market leader Samsung in terms of market share (23.5%), Xiaomi has announced that its Indian unit has turned profitable in the fiscal ended March 2017 as sales grew seven fold. It is bullish of improving its performance in the current fiscal, reports Economic Times.
Xiaomi Technology India saw sales surge 696% to Rs 83.79 billion (US$ 1.30 billion) with net profit of Rs 1.64 billion (US$ 25.42 million) during FY17, its third year in India. A year ago, it had revenues of Rs 10.46 billion (US$ 162.13 million) with net loss of Rs 469 million (US$ 7.27 million).
After China, India is the second largest market for Xiaomi. The financial performance in India is likely to help the Chinese smartphone maker’s prospects about an initial public offering where it is seeking a valuation of at least US $50 billion.
When Xiaomi entered Indian market, it was an exclusive online player via Flipkart, but recently it also entered the brick-and-mortar retail space.
Earlier, Oppo Mobiles had announced that its sales surged to Rs 79.74 billion (US$ 1.24 billion) in the year ended March 2017, a 754% increase from Rs 9.34 billion (US$ 144.77 million) in the fiscal before.
Oppo had entered India four years ago and invested heavily in marketing through advertising blitz, sponsoring popular cricket tournaments, wooing retailers with hefty margins and buying retail shelves.
Oppo is one of four phone brands, alongside Vivo, OnePlus and Imoo, owned by the Chinese firm BBK Electronics.