After conquering China, Oppo has big plans to win India

China’s Oppo is going after mid-market buyers in India trading up from flip phones or budget smartphones. Photo credit: Oppo.

Right after being crowned the new winner of China’s smartphone market in 2016, Oppo has its eyes on another big prize – India.

While China’s smartphone demand is more than four times greater than India’s, the South Asian country is in the midst of a rapid changeover from basic mobiles to smartphones. It’s a market that will eventually be as large as China’s, where around 467 million brand-new devices went to eager customers last year.

After swiping top spot in its home nation, Oppo is now plotting rapid progress in the fast-growing Indian smartphone market. It will start manufacturing more of its phones there using its own local facility. Oppo’s India factory, scheduled to come online later this month, will be able to produce an initial 50 million units per year. Eventually, it will rise to 100 million, covering all its India models.

Diwali celebrations at the Oppo India office. Photo credit: Oppo.

Previously Oppo had tapped Foxconn’s India plant for some local devices.

Oppo’s move comes as other phone makers, prodded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to “make in India,” are setting up their own production lines. Chinese rivals Xiaomi and LeEco are already knocking out some of their models in the country.

Gunning for Samsung

Alongside the production facility, Oppo has vowed to open a nearby, US$216 million industrial park in Greater Noida, a small north Indian city adjoined to the capital, Delhi. The industrial park will be finished in two to three years.

Oppo has already started a marketing blitz in India, signing up ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh as a brand ambassador, and hitting the streets and TV screens with advertisements.

Oppo invades the Delhi Metro. Screengrab from EG Communications video.

Oppo, its fellow Chinese rivals, as well as Indian brands like Micromax, are all chasing after Samsung, which has ruled India’s smartphone market for several years.

The company’s newest move to catch the zeitgeist in India is to partner with the top online store, Flipkart, to launch online exclusive Oppo phones.