Huawei, Xiaomi lead Chinese brands’ stranglehold on world’s largest smartphone market

The top smartphone brands are extending their dominance in China, with five companies now accounting for three in every four handsets sold in the world’s largest market.

Huawei led the pack, boosting its market share by more than a fifth to 19.4 per cent in the third quarter, according to preliminary figures released by industry researcher IDC on Monday. Together with Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple, the five smartphone brands are gaining at the expense of smaller, lesser-known makes, which saw their collective share drop by about a third from a year earlier.

The leading cash-rich Chinese smartphone makers are stepping up their investments in branding to burnish their credentials among younger buyers. Competition is increasing even as data show the market is shrinking, with total shipments slipping 1 per cent to 114.7 million units, according to IDC.

“Even though the market is getting saturated in China, smartphone companies are still aggressive in trying to steal market share from their competitors,” said Tay Xiaohan, IDC’s research manager. All of the top smartphone players will need to either to maintain or increase their marketing activities in the coming quarters as competition intensifies, she said.

Smaller players will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the high-spending market leaders, with Huawei and Xiaomi joining the likes of Oppo and Vivo in spending aggressively to sponsor key television programmes, including a popular hip-hop talent show, Tay said.