China's New Gambit To Dominate Africa: Cheap Smartphones

[onebyone]

A couple takes a selfie on the beach on March 18, 2017 in Grand-Bassam, near Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. (ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images)

Strong investment in Africa has defined Chinese foreign policy over about the past 17 years. Countries such as Angola and Namibia get aid such as low-interest loans from the Beijing government in exchange for letting Chinese firms mine for the likes of oil and uranium. This sort of give-and-take prompted American think tank The Brookings Institute to title a paper “Monster or Messiah” in describing two ways of looking at China’s role. Messiah means China, the world's No. 2 economy, has helped otherwise poor countries in Africa move ahead as its investment on the continent grew from $210 million in 2000 to $3.17 billion in 2011. Monster implies China is using its aid largely to extract resources and “prop up" corrupt leaders in African countries, the think tank’s 2014 paper says. Add to that a perception that China reached deep into Africa to take a lead over Western countries.

Now enter Tecno, an Android smartphone brand few people outside Africa have heard of. That model is designed by 11-year-old Shenzhen-based developer Transsion. Its smartphones made the brand second most popular in Africa after Samsung since edging fellow Chinese developer Huawei out of that space last year, Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute says.

The Tecno has captured African users since 2008 for low prices and services such as the Palmchat mobile messaging app with 60 million users as of 2015, says Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based tech market research firm Marbridge Consulting. “It focuses almost exclusively on the African market, offering low-cost phones with locally popular features,” he says. It came out with a selfie phone for African users earlier this year.

Transsion reached the No. 2 spot in Africa because it dove in and figured out what customers wanted, namely quality at a low price, when feature phones were still the thing to have, says Simon Baker, a mobile devices program director with market research firm IDC. Its phones started in the “key” markets of Kenya and Nigeria and then expanded into others, including the African countryside, Baker says. Transsion reported a 21% increase in handset exports in 2014 for a total of 45 million, largely to the African continent of about 1 billion people. Transsion runs R&D centers in Lagos and Nairobi. A lot of its peers, particularly fellow Chinese-brand smartphones, went after Asian consumers as Transsion was chasing Africa. Tecno phones now sell in 40 countries and has sold a total of 120 million units, the Transsion website says,

“The group took an odd man out strategy in that it did not pile in to the same markets as its rivals – domestic China and other South East Asian markets and then India,” Baker says. “Now that it has achieved scale it is going the other way round – it has been moving into India having very much established itself in Africa first.”

Getting back to the bigger China-versus-Africa narrative, Tecno phones would probably come off more as messiahs than as monsters. Other handset makers invest little in Africa because other markets have more people with more money to spend on higher-priced models. Transsion didn't mind the barrier. African consumers got new choices in smartphones in return. For China, Transsion has helped the country become Africa’s top trading partner since 2000. It also supports hopes among officials in Beijing that Chinese firms can make money on the continent without being seen as exploiters. “Aligning with China's overseas investment policy, it is not at all surprising that many Chinese companies have ventured into the African market and enjoyed achievements,” Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute analyst Huang Shih-zong says.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphj...minate-africa-cheap-smartphones/#320c288d322f

 

[ChineseToTheBone]

“The group took an odd man out strategy in that it did not pile in to the same markets as its rivals – domestic China and other South East Asian markets and then India,” Baker says.

Offering great value for money was precisely how China managed to dominate the market for smartphones within India, so there were no surprises the same formula worked in the continent of Africa.

 

[ohmrlobalobayeh]

Offering great value for money was precisely how China managed to dominate the market for smartphones within India, so there were no surprises the same formula worked in the continent of Africa.

3rd world nations like African countries and India are easy to dominate.