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Doug Young
Doug Young

Corporate China | Weibo: Vivo chases Xiaomi, Autohome, Qihoo execs at play

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Qihoo's Zhou Hongyi shares his passion for paintball on Weibo. Photo: Weibo
Doug Young

It's been a quiet week in the microblogging realm, due to the three-day May Day holiday that saw much of China closed down for the latter part of the week to enjoy the arrival of spring. The vacation didn't see any slowdown in the ongoing smartphone price wars in China, which are forcing local players to look overseas to escape the overheated domestic market. Mid-sized player Vivo became the latest player to look outside China, starting down a path that looks similar to that being blazed by smartphone sensation Xiaomi.

Meantime, top executives from car website Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) and software security maker Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) were having a bit more fun on their holidays. The vacation saw Autohome founder Li Xiang, and Qihoo's controversial CEO Zhou Hongyi both take a break from their usual business thoughts to make some entertaining posts on their microblogs, showing how they like to spend their non-working time.

Let's start off with the business side of things, as China gets back to work after the long Labor Day holiday. China's smartphone price wars have been in the news almost non-stop for much of the last half year, as domestic producers flooded the market with cheap new models. The situation is rapidly worsening as the market becomes saturated, and domestic smartphone sales actually plunged about 15 percent in the first quarter of this year. 
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In a bid to escape some of that pressure, a growing number of Chinese players are looking abroad where competition is less intense. Two of the largest, ZTE (0763.HK; Shenzhen: 000063) and Huawei, have embarked on global campaigns, though both are more focused on developed western markets. The smaller but fast-rising Xiaomi has taken a different approach, announcing last month it will move into ten developing markets this year as it kicks off a global expansion.  
Now Vivo, whose parent is BBK Communication Technology, has announced its own expansion that looks quite similar to Xiaomi's, targeting the Southeast Asian markets of Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. Vivo marketing executive Feng Lei was detailing the expansion on his microblog, saying that 2014 will mark the official beginning of his company's globalization.  
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He makes different posts on all three of the markets that Vivo is entering, discussing its partners and various preparations. Compared with Xiaomi's similar announcement last month, Vivo's move looks far more low key. But that's probably because Vivo doesn't have the same marketing skills as Xiaomi, which has become a master at attracting media attention for almost everything it does.

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