Looking at the world as a whole, the smartphone market is showing signs of saturation. But in some countries, China โs OPPO smartphones are rapidly expanding their market share.
An IDC survey showed that the world's smartphone shipments in 2018 decreased by 4.1% from the previous year to 1.44 billion units, but in emerging market countries such as Southeast Asia, it is in the period of full penetration.
According to a survey conducted by Euromonitor International, the expected OPPO market share in 2019 compared with 2014, Thailand increased to 4.8 times, Indonesia to 4.7 times, and Vietnam to 2.9 Times, said a report by the Nikkei on November 29.
OPPO's share in Vietnam in 2019 is 23.6%, and the gap with South Korea's Samsung Electronics (25.5%, ranking first) with an overwhelming brand appeal is not large.
The Nikkei report noted that on a street in the center of Hanoi, OPPO mobile phones in a large mobile phone store "mobile world" are placed in a prominent position in the store. The clerk said that OPPO's best-selling product is "F11".
As of mid-October, the price was about VND 7.3 million (about 2200 yuan), which is 20% to 30% cheaper than the main models of Apple and Samsung. The camera performance is considered to be excellent, and many people buy it while taking a test shot in front of the counter.
Ruan Yulan, who loves OPPO phones, told Nikkei, "Compared with other phones, it can take beautiful photos. The price is lower than the iPhone, etc., and the operation is very simple."
According to reports, unlike Japan and other countries with an iPhone share of 54.2% in 2019, Apple's share in Southeast Asia is small. It is 2.5% in Indonesia and 2.4% in the Philippines. Even Vietnam, which has always liked American products, has sharply decreased from 19.2% in 2014 to 9.9% in 2019. For many people in Southeast Asia, the iPhone still seems too expensive.
The report believes that the rapid expansion of OPPO's share seems to have a clear relationship with the camera function. People in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand all like to use SNS (social networking sites) and selfies. Mobile phone cameras are used frequently. If you set your own photos in the standby interface, it is common in Thailand and Indonesia.
According to data from Germany's Statista Survey, Indonesia has 130 million Facebook users as of July, second only to the United States and India, ranking third in the world, and 58 million in Vietnam, seventh. Thailand, with 46 million people, ranks eighth.
In Vietnam, the local social networking site "zalo" is also popular. In Thailand, chat software such as LINE is popular, and friends often send photos to each other.
According to the report, in Vietnam, many people send applications for adding friends to strangers through social networking sites, with thousands of online friends. Whether you can take beautiful photos with a lot of likes is the lifeline of smart phones. If you add low prices, you can get consumer support.
It is reported that the popularity of other Chinese brands such as Xiaomi and Huawei is also rising. Local companies such as Vingroup in Vietnam have also launched smartphones. The intensification of competition is unavoidable. It is unknown when OPPO's outstanding performance will continue.