Chinese Mobile Companies Are Expanding Rapidly Into India

A number of Chinese mobile companies are expanding rapidly into India. Mobivista, a mobile advertising platform, has announced plans to invest $100 million in India by 2018.Chinese handset company Coolpad  Dazen has set up more than 250 service centres across India, in just the past two months.

On Thursday, at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) Bengaluru, Chinese mobile market leaders like Baidu, Cheetah Mobile, and Apus Group announced plans to seek Indian partnerships and hire Indian developers. Some also announced big investment plans.

Web service giant Baidu said the number of its users in India was one of the highest outside China. The other big markets for Baidu are Brazil and Indonesia. Called the “Google of China”, Baidu has a 75% market share in China. “We don’t have the same standing in India now, but India is important to us, given its 1.25 billion people, 19% internet penetration, and government policies that are favorable to promoting internet penetration,” said Joshua Fenn, Baidu’s senior marketing manager.

Mobile tools provider Cheetah Mobile said it planned to expand local partnerships, hire local talent, promote the Cheetah ad platform, and invest in startups in India. “The mobile internet market in India is growing rapidly. It’s the fastest growing market for smartphones in Asia-Pacific. India will soon become the most populous country. So we see India as one of the most important markets,” said Sheng Fu, CEO of Cheetah Mobile.

Apus Group, an Android application developer, said it would invest $1 billion in India over the next few years, in innovative startups and mobile developers. TOI had last week reported Apus’ plan to set up an operations centre, R&D and, tech support branch in India.

“Indian developers have already learnt from the US and China markets. We need to speed up and look for more innovation in India. India’s market is similar to China’s in terms of user base and innovation,” said Tao Li, CEO and founder, Apus Group. The company’s looking to hire around 300 people for the India R&D centre.