Indonesia is a highly competitive market for smartphones right now. Thanks to the popularity of e-commerce sites like JD and Lazada, companies have been able to expand their reach throughout the country. This has led to Chinese brands growing rapidly, outpacing local companies and quickly closing in on Samsung‘s number 1 spot.
According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, Indonesia’s smartphone shipments grew 7% annually during in Q3 2019. Research Analyst Parv Sharma says “Chinese brands hold four out of the top five positions with 65% market share by volume. This is the highest ever share by Chinese brands in Indonesia, pushing local brands to mere single digit share.”
They continue, “in terms of brands, Xiaomi is maintaining the second position in the market and is reducing the gap to Samsung’s first position. Xiaomi has locally produced 10 million smartphones with a focus on both the online and offline channels. It has invested in creating 40 authorized Mi stores. Indonesia is one of the key markets responsible for Xiaomi’s global growth.”
Adding further Sharma said, “Realme has also shown impressive growth since its launch. Aggressive online channel marketing with competitive product pricing and features is the key reason for its success.” It’s really quite the impressive feat, especially considering that Realme had no presence within the country until recently.
Whether one of these companies will manage to dethrone Samsung remains to be seen, but it’s not unlikely. Indonesia, like many other South East Asian countries, places a big emphasis on high value devices. We’ll have to wait for Q4 2019 to find out.
(Source)
