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China's Transsion isn't a household name in China like Xiaomi or Huawei. But it's the largest mobile phone maker in Africa. It has applied for an IPO on Shanghai's new tech board and is looking elsewhere for expansion. Xia Cheng caught up with Transsion chairman George Zhu, to discuss what's next for the company, starting with its interest in the Belt and Road Initiative.
GEORGE ZHUTRANSSION HOLDINGS CHAIRMAN XIA CHENGCGTN "The Belt and Road marks a good time for Chinese companies to go global. Some of the emerging markets are still in the middle of industrialization. That also gives Chinese companies opportunities. Countries now are working on digitalization. Chinese companies have a solid foundation in telecoms and the internet, allowing them to test overseas markets."
"Transsion has two major businesses. Smartphones are our core product among a variety of smart devices. We are one of the first to operate overseas. We also make wearables and smart home appliances. Meanwhile, we are also investing in mobile internet products and services for emerging and frontier markets, including a news app, a browser, a music player and an app store tailored for those markets."
"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. For 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."
"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. Through our products, we cultivated local consumer behavior, and those consumers are now very used to our products. Three of our product lines were ranked 7th, 16th and 28th on the favorite brands list in Africa last year among many globally renowned consumer brands."
"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."