Smartphone makers like ZTE, Huawei turn to Europe for growth

Hampered by a sluggish market at home, a growing number of Chinese smartphone makers are turning their attention to greener pastures on another continent altogether: Europe.

In the past, Huawei and ZTE’s handset business in Europe generally involved producing white-label devices for European smartphone brands. But in recent years, they’ve been making a far more significant push into Europe, pumping copious amounts of money into staging dazzling, high-profile product launches and sponsoring some of the world’s most famous football stars.

Huawei, for example, held its first major smartphone launch event in London in June 2013, bringing its then-flagship Ascend P6 device to market. At the time, the Wall Street Journal described Huawei as “more known for the network equipment it produces … not a major consumer brand.”

I

In a little over three years, Huawei has steadily climbed the ranks, overtaking brands such as Sony, LG and Microsoft to become the world’s third-largest smartphone maker behind Samsung and Apple. Earlier this year, it signed Argentinean football star Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador in a deal reportedly worth a cool US$6 million.

Huawei enjoys more than 20 per cent market share in countries such as Spain, Italy, Poland and Finland, according to data from research firm GFK. In Spain, it has already surpassed Apple to take the No 2 spot.