The Belt and Road Initiative is considered as a good time for Chinese companies to go global, according to George Zhu, chairman of Transsion Holdings – a Chinese mobile phone maker takes the biggest market share in Africa.

"The Belt and Road mark a good time for Chinese companies to go global," Zhu said. He thought that thanks to China's effort on digitalization, Chinese companies have "solid foundation in telecoms and the internet," allowing them to test overseas markets. 

"Some of the emerging markets are still in the middle of industrialization. That also gives Chinese companies opportunities," Zhu added.

Transsion's strategy

Transsion isn't a household name in China like Xiaomi or Huawei, but it's the largest mobile phone maker in Africa. The chairman regarded localization and innovation based on demand the key to grabbing the market. 

"I think the key is to understand the market demand and come up with localized products and services. We have been both innovating and localizing to find out the market demand that's ignored by our peers," Zhu said.

By working closely with research and development centers in Nigeria and Kenya, and providing affordable and region-specific phones to cities and rural Africa, Transsion has been able to continuously innovate around the needs of its customers and bump its sales.

According to IDC figures, the total market share of Transsion's mobile phone brands ranked first in Africa. Its official website showed that Transsion sold nearly 124 million mobile phones globally in 2018, held the fourth position in the world. 

"I think our peers have long been in Africa with us. It has always been a crowded market. But to get market share, you need to make products that touch consumers' hearts, show them the value for money and meet their demands. And we have spent big in R&D for our own patents," he explained.

Zhu continued with an example. "In Africa, the weather is too hot so you get sweaty palms easily and that's bad for the durability of the phone. We fixed that. Also, African people love music of their origins. We adapted our music service to their taste."  

Transsion has applied for an IPO on Shanghai's new tech board and is looking elsewhere for expansion. 

"Besides Africa, we continue to look at the Belt and Road, as some of those markets are where our know-how and technology fit in. We prefer markets that are similar to Africa. That's why currently we are focusing on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh," he revealed.

(CGTN's Xia Cheng also contributed to the story.)