Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo in high demand: Indians lapping up Chinese brands despite intense scrutiny

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Indian consumers are lapping up Chinese electronics brands as they offer value for money and don’t suffer from the perception of poor quality anymore, giving them a strong market share across segments, said industry executives. This is despite Chinese electronic product companies coming under intense regulatory scrutiny in India amid a heightening of border tensions.

As per market trackers Counterpoint Research and IDC, four Chinese brands—Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo—are ranked in the top five for smartphones. The only one not from that country is South Korea’s Samsung. Industry executives estimate this will translate into combined sales of almost Rs 90,000-95,000 crore.

China’s Xiaomi was examined by Indian government agencies over alleged foreign exchange violations in 2022, which coincided with a large proportion of its top leadership changing. The company ceded its No. 1 spot in the December quarter of 2022 to Samsung, eventually sliding to fourth. But by the June quarter this year, Xiaomi was back at the top on the back of an aggressive expansion in offline retail. Vivo is another Chinese company that has faced investigations over allegations of tax violations and money laundering.

The Chinese have also gained ground in the fiercely competitive home appliances and TV segments, where the number of popular brands exceeds that of smartphones-as many as 40 in ACs to 15 in TVs. Qingdao-based Haier ranks fourth in refrigerators after LG, Samsung and Whirlpool, and also fourth in TVs after LG, Samsung and Sony, industry executives said, citing sales researcher GfK’s figures for January to June of this year.

“Indians no longer perceive these brands as Chinese and consider them international brands,” said Nilesh Gupta, director at Vijay Sales, a leading consumer electronics retail chain present in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. “They have created brand equity for themselves in India through the years.”

They have also burned their image through ads at global sporting events, the executives said. For instance, Vivo and Hisense were official sponsors of the just-concluded Euro football championship.In smartphones, the combined share of Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo went up to 61.6% in the April-June period.Big Marketing Spends
This was compared to a 55% share in the same period a year ago.

The only significant non-Chinese brands in smartphones are Samsung and Apple, Gupta said. Chinese brands have an edge, given their compelling prices, Gupta said. In appliances, Haier has found gaps in the market and filled them with innovative products such as bottom-mount refrigerators, thereby gaining share, he said. These are units that have the freezer compartments at the bottom.

In premium side-by-side refrigerators, Haier is now the third largest brand after LG and Samsung, while in washing machines it has become fifth largest in the January-June period compared with seventh last year.

Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint, said most of these brands have also aligned themselves with a value-for-money proposition, a turnaround from them being perceived as being cheap and of inferior quality.

To be sure, in smart televisions, the combined share of all Chinese brands fell in the last year due to the exit of brands such as Realme and OnePlus as part of their global strategy. As per Counterpoint data, the share of Chinese brands fell to 26% in the April-June period from 34% in the year before due to that departure.

Pathak said Chinese brands spend big on marketing, including regional campaigns, which even consumers in smaller towns can readily connect with. “They also have a structured distribution network and offer higher margins to retailers to push their products more to consumers,” he said.

Chinese smartphone brands are also faster in bringing new features to market, he said.

“They take advantage of the mature value chain in China, getting access to the latest technology faster, even though products are designed regionally,” Pathak said. “And, because most of these Chinese brands play at a global scale, they can source components and parts at a lower price than the competition.”

In laptops, Lenovo continues to be among the top four brands as per IDC data, with the pecking order largely depending on who wins how many government contracts in a particular quarter. This is highlighted by the company’s ThinkPad model having a dominant hold over the business user market.