OPPO gives thrust to offline strategy in India

Unveils selfie expert smartphone F1s

OPPO, a Chinese smartphone company, on Wednesday said that it will go ahead with its offline strategy in India to expand its market presence.

In an interaction with DH, OPPO India marketing head Will Yang said consumers prefer first-hand experience of mobile products. “Indian consumers want to have a touch and feel experience of our products. We had 5,000 sales touch points till October 2014. By July end, it has reached 30,000,” Yang said.

Yang also revealed that OPPO India has established nine company-owned-company-operated (COCO) stores in Karnataka, and it will increase the number to 28 by the end of this year. “Over all, in India we are planning to open more than 100 such stores,” he said.

“We would like to make OPPO an Indian brand. As part of that we have already appointed 99% employees from India. OPPO currently has 6,000 employees, and is still hiring,” he said.

The marketing head of OPPO said the company has invested Rs 100 crore as part of the ‘Make in India’ plan.  “We invested the money to start our manufacturing line in Noida  and it will be operational soon. We will continue to invest in India to further expand our market presence,” he said.

According to market research firm IDC, smartphone manufacturer OPPO grew by 137% in the second quarter of 2016. “The company finished fourth overall, behind Samsung, Apple and Huawei, in that order,” states IDC.

In India, OPPO has a market share increased to 6.7% in value terms by May 2016. Its market share was 0.7% in October 2015. The company has launched more than 20 products in the Indian market with price range between Rs 6,000 and Rs 40,000.

Smart features

OPPO on Wednesday launched its ‘selfie expert’ smartphone — F1s at an introductory price of Rs 17,990, with 16MP front camera and 13MP primary camera. Besides fingerprint sensor on-board that will unlock the device in just 0.22 seconds, the FIs is having 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) display, 3GB RAM and 32GB of expandable native storage.

When asked about the bundled content being offered by others, OPPO made it clear that it would like to focus on products. “OPPO is a company with mobile phone first strategy. We want to give consumers smart products,” he said.