Foreign Brands Losing Luster in China

[Beidou2020]

An employee arranges products at a supermarket in Beijing.

Move over Western brands, Chinese companies are taking over.

China’s 1.34 billion-plus consumers are filling their shopping baskets with Chinese-branded toothpaste, laundry detergent, juice, cookies and more, according to a new study from consultancy Bain & Co.

Local Chinese companies have become more competitive and are leveraging their strength in smaller cities, where growth rates are higher than in top cities like Beijing and Shanghai, according to the study, which looked at the shopping habits of 40,000 consumers.

The result is that foreign brands are losing market share in large consumer goods categories–such as personal care, home care and packaged foods– all across China, from its biggest to smallest cities, Bain said. And sales growth, which is dwindling as China’s economy slows, is going primarily to Chinese companies, such as fabric-softener maker Guangzhou Liby Enterprise and juicer Tian Di No. 1 Beverage, it said.

While that’s good news for Chinese brands, it’s nothing to cheer about for global companies, which have been banking on Chinese shoppers to boost their sales. China’s economy is also slowing, meaning that the days of easy money in China are over and tireless boardroom references to “China’s emerging middle class” as the saving grace may soon be put to rest.

Some companies, like Best Buy Co. and Home Depot Inc., have either exited or are rethinking their goals in China. Best Buy Co. sold all its remaining stores in China last year, citing online competition.

But there’s still growth for many foreign brands. Foreign makers of beer, chewing gum and hair conditioner are still gaining traction and market share from Chinese companies, according to Bain.

Below are charts from Bain & Co and Kantar Worldpanel showing how Chinese companies are standing up against foreign rivals at retail and in consumer products.

 

[TaiShang]

Good development. As R&D spending rises in China across the board, there is no reason that national champions would en up dominating home market.

It started with tech and social media. The trend will expand toward food and personal consumption goods.

 

[cirr]

Music to my ears。

It is bound to happen sooner or later。And it is happening。

 

[AndrewJin]

Good news.

 

[cirr]

Huawei Honor shipped nearly 20 million smartphones in 1H15

c114 | Posted: 02 Jul 2015, 14:48

As an independent mobile phone brand of Huawei, Huawei Honor began to operate independently on December 2013. In 2014, shipments of the Honor devices exceeded 20 million in the world, achieving $2.4 billion in the sales, and created a record by the fastest growing speed in the world's Internet mobile phone brands.

According to previous plan, Huawei Honor will ship 40 million smartphones and reach $5 billion sales in 2015, namely doubled on the performance of 2014. According to the introduction of Zhao Ming, the president of Huawei Honor, shipments of Huawei Honor smartphones reached nearly 20 million in 1H2015, and reached the level of last year; the sales reached $2.6 billion in 74 markets in global. This also means that Huawei Honor exceeded the overall sales of 2014 in only half a year of 2015.

At the same time, the main models of Huawei Honor were also appreciated by the consumers. By the end of March in this year, shipments of the flagship Honor 6 exceeded 4 million in the global, Honor 4x exceeded 6 million and over 1.5 million for Honor 6 plus. It is worth mention that in the Honor global Carnival Festival which was held on April 8th involving 18 countries and regions and covering 3.2 billion people in the world, including Asia, Europe and the America, the sales exceeded $300 million in one day and won the sales champion among 13 E-business platforms in global.

In addition, the Honor brand also made breakthroughs in the Internet business. Data showed that by the end of May 2015, app downloads exceeded 10 billion times in Huawei's app center, the monthly capital transaction reached CNY150 million in the game center, and transaction of the newly launched Honor Wallet in last December exceeded CNY120 million. So far, the one and a half year old Honor brand, has made an Internet mobile phone way of its own by the faith of "brave to be yourself".

Huawei Honor shipped nearly 20 million smartphones in 1H15 - OFweek News

 

[AndrewJin]

According to previous plan, Huawei Honor will ship 40 million smartphones and reach $5 billion sales in 2015, namely doubled on the performance of 2014

The sales can be better than 40 million, this year is a critical year when millions of Chinese change their older smart phone to 4G smart phones.

btw, is Huawei Honor an independent series from normal Huawei smart phones?

 

[cirr]

Huawei teases Honor Band Zero smartwatch and Honor Whistle Bluetooth headset

By: Zara Ali  | ubergizmo | Posted: 03 Jul 2015, 00:06

(Huawei Band Zero smartwatch)

Huawei has recently unveiled the Honor 7 and along with that the company has also unleashed Honor Whistle Bluetooth headset and Honor Band Zero smartwatch.

As of now, the company has just started teasing the two new wearable devices and is keeping the pricing and availability under wraps. However, according to some reports, the Honor Band Zero smartwatch might start retailing in China from next month.

Talking about the design of Honor Band Zero smartwatch, it comes with a circular design with metal bezel covering the corners. Just like other wearables in the segment, Huawei’s smartwatch also boasts IP68 certification, which makes it water-resistant and dust-proof.

The device is touted to display message notifications and incoming calls, although there is no information whether users will be able to answer calls through the Zero Band smartwatch. It also features pedometer with sleep tracker and will be available in Beige, Black and White color options. Also, Huawei has revealed no detail regarding which OS will the smartwatch run — Android Wear or Huawei’s in-house OS.

(Honor Whistle Bluetooth headset)

On the other hand, the Honor Whistle Bluetooth headset comes in a brushed metal design. Being a teaser, there are no details about this one as well. Huawei will be launching the Whistle Bluetooth headset as an accessory for its Honor 7 smartphone.

Huawei teases Honor Band Zero smartwatch and Honor Whistle Bluetooth headset - OFweek News

 

[TaiShang]

Huawei Honor Band Zero: a circular new smartwatch
JULY 1, 2015

Huawei is tenacious, to say the least. Despite the fact its existing wearable, the Huawei Watch hasn’t even been released yet, the company is already anxious to start spreading the news of yet another time-telling-trinket:

While absolutely nothing is yet known about this product, there are a couple of points which can be deduced from the pic:

1. The device will be thin and round. Huawei seems to be going for a clean, disc-shaped structure here sans any form of physical buttons along the circumference. It’s possible there will be a flush, physical button along the side of the device facing down, but as the watch looks quite thin, it’s more likely there will be some form of button on the underside.

2. The device will come with a textured, standard-type rubber(ized) band. The texture on the band gives the device a certain sense of style that would otherwise be lacking like on say, the Apple Watch Sport.

This device from 2014 is known as the Color Band, but is it related to the Band Zero?

It will be interesting to see just how Huawei plans to position this device given that it already released the Color Band line which can be seen above. The Color Band series is much more in-tow with standard fitness bands. In theory, the Band Zero could actually use the large watch display as nothing more than a stat screen, with no actual Android Wear connectivity (more on that later).

Huawei’s new watch is going for a distinctly different aesthetic and form factor than its previous one seen here.

The product is clearly taking on a very different aesthetic than the company’s last smartwatch, seen above. Whereas the Huawei Watch has a large, “manly” presence complete with physical buttons on the sides, the new one seems to be aimed at either a more casual user, or perhaps consumers who might not want such a rugged product.