Transsion Dominates as the “King” in the African C

By Lily Wang

T

he Chinese cellphone man-ufacturer Transsion is strange to most Chinese people, but sub-Saharan area, the logos of cellphone in Africa, particularly in the

brands under the Transsion umbrella can be found everywhere, no matter wheth-er you are in a small-sized family-run shop or a supermarket, on billboards or on television advertisements. During the past 12 years since its foundation, Transsion has sold 246 million dual-sim-card cellphones across the world and has dominated the sub-Saharan African nations with a market share of 45%. Transsion covers the markets of Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South-east Asia and Latin America. All three cellphone brands under the Transsion umbrella were listed in the Tvorite brands among African consumers op 100 fa-during 2017-2018 by the British business magazine African Business. The three brands ranked among the top 30, with the best ranking of No. 7, which makes Transsion live up to the reputation as be-ing the “King” of the African cellphone market.

succeededHow has this little-known company Zhu Zhaojiang, founder, chairman and ?China’s Foreign Trade invited CEO of Transsion to share his experiences.

Participating deeply in the local market and focusing on long-term development

jiang, the former head of the overseas mar-As early as the year 2006, Zhu Zhao-ket of Bird Cellphones founded TZhu brought the strategy “expanding from ranssion. the rural areas into the urban areas” to Af-rica, which had proven to be effective in the Chinese market. By building channels and advertising, Zhu wanted to fight for mar-

ket shares from the powerful pioneers like Samsung and Nokia.

realized that Transsion is not aiming “In the beginning, we clearly to make quick profits but is focused on establishing a self-owned brand and long-term development. Before entering into the African market, we conducted lots of analysis and research,” said Zhu Zhaojiang. “The African market boasts tremendous business potential with a scope of 1 billion consumers. At that time, the market did not have many local cellphone brands. Consumer demand and market supply were not balanced. It was because of this that we found such opportunities.

rican market over the past years, Trans-With the development of the Af-sion has seen that with quality products and reasonable prices, local consumers may well experience the convenience of emerging technologies, which enables Transsion to more firmly uphold their strategy of focusing on the development of emerging markets.

Starting with the African market and aiming for the global market

well-deserved title of “uncrowned king” Nowadays, Trassion holds the of the African cellphone market. How-ever, the company won’t and cannot stop here. Zhu Zhaojiang disclosed that Trassion is endeavoring to explore other emerging markets and has worked out a plan to further nudge into the global emerging markets. The company hopes to creatively transfer its experiences accumulated in the African market to other emerging markets.

Africa, and then entered into India, “We started with a focus on and so far, have already started ex-

Transsion hopes to change the lifestyle of the local people and tries its best to provide convenience for users. ploring more emerging markets. This is our development roadmap and is also our strategic layout. By the year 2017, Transsion’s global sales network covers more than fifty nations and regions including Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East,” said Zhu.

Transsion hopes to change the lifestyle According to Zhu Zhaojiang, of the local people and tries its best to provide convenience for users. The de-velopment of cellphones and derivative businesses may enhance the life quality of African people and will enable them to experience the power of technology. “A multi-brand marketing strategy and ‘nothing-to-something, something-to-best’ products have assisted Transsion in gaining power in Africa,” said Zhu. 37