By Kate Yuan
(JW Insights) Nov 14 -- Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is targeting more on the high-end smartphone market after the company beat Samsung as the top smartphone brand in Indonesia in the second quarter with a market share of 20 percent, according to a China Daily report on November 13.
Andy Shi, president of Oppo Asia Pacific, said, "We aim to compete head-on with Samsung in the above-$800 segment with our flagship foldable smartphones."
The ambition is backed by Oppo's strong performance in the local market. After ten years of hard work in exploring the Indonesian market, Oppo already has a strong foundation. It has over 65 million active users in the country, cultivating about 15,000 local retailers and 20,000 distribution stores.
"We have been the fastest-growing brand in Southeast Asia in the past two years. Now is the best time to crack the high-end market," Shi said.
In the second quarter, the company's Find N2 Flip series smartphone was the number one model among foldable smartphones in Indonesia, with a market share of 65 percent, said market research company Canalys.
The success is attributed in part to Oppo's strategy of opening well-designed stores with competitive products in high-end shopping malls.
Such stores, called the Oppo Gallery, are decorated more like art museums than smartphone stores. Interesting brand events are held where consumers can also enjoy free coffee and local internet celebrities often show up. In comparison, other smartphone brands such as Samsung do not have flagship stores of this size in Indonesia.
"The Oppo Gallery Plaza Indonesia has the highest single-store sales in the Asia Pacific for Find N2 Flip," said Patrick Owen, chief marketing officer of Oppo Indonesia.
Oppo has also built a factory in Indonesia, which is the largest smartphone plant in the country. Covering an area of 130,000 square meters, the factory has about 2,000 employees during peak season and can produce 28 million phones a year at full capacity, said the China Daily report.
Indonesia is the biggest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Jim Zhang, CEO of Oppo Indonesia, said, "Indonesia has a population of nearly 280 million with about 5 million babies born every year. From the age structure of the consumer market, Indonesia is worth looking at."
