South Korean media: Chinese smartphones are shaking up the global market! On April 15, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo published an article stating that Chinese smartphone manufacturers are accelerating their expansion into overseas markets. This is interpreted as an attempt to break Apple and Samsung's duopoly. Vivo, which holds the top share of China's smartphone market, announced its plan to actively expand overseas markets. Vivo COO Hu Bushan told Bloomberg in an interview that "more than half of our total sales already come from overseas," and added that "we plan to increase this proportion to 60% by 2025 and to 70% by 2027." He then emphasized that "the future of vivo depends on overseas markets." According to data from market research firm IDC, vivo's shipment volume in China increased by more than 10% last year, surpassing competitors such as Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi to take the top spot. The emerging markets targeted by Chinese enterprises include Southeast Asia and India. This is because the rapid increase in smartphone penetration rates has led to high demand for competitively priced Chinese products. According to data from market research firm Canalys, last year in the Southeast Asian smartphone market, Chinese manufacturer OPPO surpassed Samsung Electronics (17%) for the first time with a 18% share. In 2023, Samsung Electronics ranked first (21%), followed by OPPO (17%). Last year, Samsung Electronics fell to second place, while Chinese manufacturers Transsion and Xiaomi tied for third place (16%). The smartphone market share in India fluctuates greatly due to its rapid adoption rate. According to data from market research firm Counterpoint Research, in the fourth quarter of last year, vivo ranked first in India's smartphone market share with 21%, followed by Xiaomi (15%), OPPO (12%), Apple (11%), and Samsung (11%). Samsung's share dropped 5 percentage points compared to the same period in 2023 (16%). As Chinese manufacturers actively expand their overseas sales, it is expected that the market shares of the top three Chinese companies will further increase this year. China's smartphone overseas expansion is also expected to impact the supply chain of the component industry. Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone manufacturers have adopted a dual-pronged strategy for their core APs, using American Qualcomm (Snapdragon) for high-end products and MediaTek (Dimensity) for mid-to-low-end products. However, recently, there has been an increasing trend of MediaTek APs being used in high-end product lines. A South Korean insider stated that "emerging markets such as Southeast Asia targeted by Chinese smartphone manufacturers are less affected by US tariffs. They purchase key components from MediaTek instead of Qualcomm, which also gives them an advantage of relative freedom from US export controls." Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829442665105476/ Disclaimer: The article represents the views of the author alone.