Desi Vs.Videshi

A campaign for boycott of Chinese products is opening up opportunities for local brands in smartphones and TVs. But do they have the scale to upstage the Chinese?

- SUMANT BANERJI

On the afternoon of June 18, a video featuring a group of men in Coimbatore shouting anti-China slogans and smashing smartphones went viral on social media. The same day, another group of men, this time in Surat, were seen doing the same to a TV set. This beat the earlier one in internet popularity due to its higher drama quotient.

The videos emerged less than 72 hours after the clash between Indian and Chinese forces at Galwan Valley in East Ladakh that led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers. Since then, relations between the two countries have been strained. This has manifested itself in a public campaign to boycott Chinese goods, especially smartphones and TVs, the two segments dominated by companies with Chinese origin. This swirl of nationalism has given fresh wind to local brands steamrolled into dust by the Chinese a few years ago. Companies such as Micromax, Karbonn, and Lava in smartphones, and Onida, Weston, Salora, once household TV names, along with new entrants like VU Technologies, are sensing an opening to increase market penetration. Any real dent in demand, howsoever small, for Chinese products in the two categories, will throw up a sizeable opportunity for these local players.

Take smartphones. Around 158 million smartphones were sold in India in 2019. This made it the world’s second-largest market behind China with revenues of $8 billion. Four of the top five bestselling brands in the country are Chinese, led by Xiaomi and Vivo and followed by Realme and Oppo. Together, they account for over 80 per cent of the market (Q1 2020). The domestic feature phone market is worth another 130 million units. The market leader is iTel, owned by Shenzhen-based Transsion Holdings. The hold of the dragon is relatively weaker in this segment.