How Apple lost China to two unknown local smartphone makers
Oppo and Vivo capture mainland market share by focusing on retail sales in far-flung provinces
Two years ago, Oppo and Vivo couldn’t crack the top five in China’s smartphone market. Now they outrank everyone after elbowing Apple aside, thanks to people like Cheng Xiaoning.
Cheng runs a thriving electronics store in the rural town of Miaoxia, in Henan province, tapping into her WeChat social media account to promote the brands that pay the biggest commission, and in her case that’s Oppo and Vivo. While such payments start at about 40 yuan (HK$45), they escalate for more expensive handsets and reach almost 200 yuan for Oppo’s high-end smartphones.
“That’s why I like to introduce the Oppo R9 Plus to potential customers,” she said. “Business has been perfect, actually never been better.”
Cheng and tens of thousands of like-minded boosters form the vanguard of the Chinese manufacturers’ charge against Apple and Samsung Electronics. Working with the local stores that dominate sales in China’s far-flung provinces, Oppo and Vivo came out of nowhere to upend the industry order and squeeze out former local darling Xiaomi. Their labels graced one out of every three smartphones sold in China in the third quarter of this year, while the Apple iPhone’s market share – 7 per cent – was its lowest in almost three years.
