Under the trend of slowing down or even declining in the global mobile phone market, Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Transsion") has ushered in contrarian growth. According to Transsion's performance forecast on December 26, 2023, the company is expected to achieve operating income of more than 62.1 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 33%, and net profit attributable to owners of the parent company of about 5.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 121%, successfully ranking among the top five mobile phone brands in the world.
Compared with Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other well-known mobile phone manufacturers in China, Transsion is not well-known in China, but it has become the king of mobile phones in the African market.
-1- Transsion's localization and innovation
Founded in 2006, Transsion was the first Chinese mobile phone manufacturer to enter Africa, and the company has defined its "Focus on Africa" development strategy in the early days of its establishment. It is reported that at that time, the mobile phone brands in the African market were mainly international brands, and there was no product development and production according to the characteristics of the African market, and there was a lack of competitive local mobile phone brands, and there was a lack of local manufacturing technology and talent reserves. African consumers, on the other hand, have localized demand for mobile phone products and need high-quality mobile phones with good user experience.
Before entering the African market, Transsion first established a dedicated research team to conduct market research and user insights. It is understood that its insight team is not only deep in Africa.
First- and second-tier core cities, and even walk into.
Third, fourth, and fifth tier areas to understand what kind of products and services local consumers need. It is reported that Transsion has turned the insight into local consumers into a long-term core competitiveness of the organization, and continues to retain and develop.
It is understood that in Nigeria and other African countries at that time, people often prepared multiple SIM cards to avoid operators charging high fees for calling different networks, and African people with low incomes were reluctant to buy two mobile phones out of shyness.
After understanding this demand of users, Transsion quickly launched a dual-SIM dual-standby function and added scripts to the keyboard in Amharic and Swahili, which are commonly used in Africa. Even though at the time, the dual-SIM design was not technically outstanding, but it was a feature that Nokia, Samsung and other mobile phone hegemons did not consider, and African users really needed. This also made Transsion quickly famous, and further launched the "four cards and four standby" mobile phone tecno 4runner, which made it famous overnight.
*About 95% of Transsion's smartphones are priced under $200, making it a veritable "king of cheapness". In terms of charging, considering that Africa has insufficient power supply and frequent power outages, mobile phone users sometimes even need to walk more than ten kilometers to find a place to charge, Transsion has also equipped mobile phones with larger batteries to alleviate users' power anxiety.
In terms of sales, considering the low network coverage in Africa and the fact that African people basically have no channels and habits for online shopping, Transsion has adopted offline coverage publicity and marketing, whether it is in tourist cities or slums, as long as there is a wall, there are wall advertisements for Transsion mobile phones.
In terms of photography, focusing on the core demands of dark-skinned consumers in Africa, Transsion has developed a special beautification algorithm, which calculates the facial contours and fills the light through core technologies such as dark-skinned face detection and recognition, body bone key point detection, etc., so that dark-skinned black users can also shoot bright chocolate skin under beautification, effectively solving the problem that traditional mobile phone cameras are highly dependent on light, and in beautification mode, black ** is easy to be gelatinized.
In addition, in view of the scorching hot climate in Africa, where the user's physique is sweaty and easy to cause corrosion and dirt, Transsion has developed a new material with good thermal conductivity, hand sweat resistance, and lightweight mixed aramid fiber, which greatly improves the problem of sweat stains and corrosion of mobile phone shells caused by insufficient acid resistance, and reduces the weight and thickness of the whole machine.
-2- TRANSSION's core competitiveness
It is reported that through localized innovation, Transsion has built a competitive advantage in the fields of technology research and development, product branding, sales channels, first-chain management, after-sales service, and talent team, and is dominant in Africa. According to the top 100 "Most Loved Brands by African Consumers in 2023" released by African business magazine "African Business", Transsion's three major mobile phone brands are all on the list, ranking 9th.
In terms of technological innovation, with the popularity of smart phones in emerging markets, in addition to strengthening the innovative application of dark skin tone imaging technology and new materials, Transsion is also increasing its investment in scientific research in the fields of artificial intelligence big data algorithms, intelligent cognitive AI voice, AIoT vertical application technology architecture, and 5G.
In terms of product brands, TRANSSION has established multi-level brands and product sequences that can meet the needs of consumers of different classes for different consumer segments, and has accumulated a good user base. At present, Transsion Holdings has three mobile phone brands - Tecno, ITEL and INFINIX, of which TECNO is a mid-to-high-end brand, targeting middle-class consumers in emerging markets, focusing on camera technology and user experience; Itel is a popular brand, focusing on cost performance; Infinix is aimed at young consumers, focusing on fashion intelligence.
In terms of sales network, TRANSSION's products have entered more than 70 countries and regions around the world, established cooperation with more than 2,000 dealer customers, and covered major emerging markets in the world, such as Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America.
In terms of chain management, with its scale and brand advantages, Transsion has established a stable and friendly cooperative relationship with the best merchants in the procurement process; In the production process, in order to meet the differentiated market demand of consumers in different countries, Transsion has built a diversified flexible production line, with multi-variety and multi-batch production and manufacturing capabilities. In the construction of the logistics network, TRANSSION has formed a logistics and distribution system with sales market linkage, first-class logistics and regional logistics complementing each other's advantages.
In terms of after-sales service, Transsion is one of the first mobile phone manufacturers to introduce the after-sales service system to Africa, and in 2009, Transsion Holdings established an after-sales brand Carlcare, and the products are sold to the highest level, and the after-sales outlets are built simultaneously. At present, Carlcare has more than 2,000 service touchpoints (including third-party cooperative service outlets) around the world, and is one of the major multi-category after-sales service solution providers in emerging markets.
In terms of talent team, TRANSSION has gathered a high-quality management team with rich industry experience, unity and enterprising, and formed a stable and efficient core management structure. The company's core management personnel have rich experience in the mobile phone industry and have a deep understanding of the development of the mobile phone industry and the operation of enterprises in the industry. At the same time, since its establishment, TRANSSION has attached great importance to the construction of a local talent team, and has been absorbing and cultivating local talents for a long time. The company's production, R&D, procurement and sales teams all include foreign local employees and play an important role in the company's production and operation.
-3- Summary
In recent years, Transsion Holdings has also expanded its scope of competition, including new markets in terms of physical space and new markets brought about by new products and services. It is understood that since 2016, TRANSSION has learned from its success in the African market and begun to develop a broader range of emerging markets, and at the same time, through the implementation of diversified strategic layout, it has carried out expanded business such as digital accessories and household appliances in emerging markets, as well as provided mobile Internet products and services, and gradually built and improved the business ecological model of "mobile phone + mobile Internet service + home appliances and digital accessories".