Smartphones kick-start biz - Chinadaily.com.cn - China Daily

An outlet of Oppo's 5G smartphones successful Changzhou, Jiangsu province. CHINA DAILY

World Cup, different shot events drafting Chinese handset sponsors

Chinese smartphone companies are tapping into the zeal for shot to amended resonate with planetary consumers, arsenic they measurement up their propulsion to research overseas markets successful efforts to revive the smartphone assemblage that has been mired successful a income slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The moves are portion of Chinese smartphone makers' broader plans to physique up marque consciousness overseas by sponsoring planetary sporting events, and much efforts are needed to assistance construe specified big-ticket marketplace spending into factual income maturation figures, experts said.

Ni Xudong, elder vice-president and main selling serviceman of Vivo, which is the authoritative smartphone sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, said: "Soccer has the powerfulness to bring radical together. Innovation tin assistance shot fans physique a assemblage and stock breathtaking World Cup experiences with everyone crossed the globe, whether they are watching the games astatine a stadium oregon enjoying the acquisition from afar."

Vivo signed a six-year sponsorship statement with FIFA successful 2017, and the lawsuit successful Qatar is the 2nd World Cup Vivo has sponsored aft having done truthful astatine the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 and the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021.

Vivo is not alone. Chinese adjacent Oppo is besides showing mounting enthusiasm toward sponsoring shot competitions. The institution has inked a two-year concern with UEFA, oregon the Union of European Football Associations, crossed antithetic competitions specified arsenic the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.

Huawei and Honor, 2 different Chinese smartphone vendors, person besides partnered with shot stars for marketing, oregon erstwhile sponsored shot teams.

Song Xiangqing, vice-president of the Beijing-based Commerce Economy Association of China, said that adjacent though it costs rather a spot to beryllium a sponsor, connecting with events specified arsenic the World Cup is the astir nonstop mode for Chinese companies to beforehand their brands and merchantability products successful the planetary market.

Vivo said that since sponsoring the World Cup successful 2018, it has successively entered 10 European state markets. With the assistance of sponsoring UEFA's contention successful 2020, its stock successful the European marketplace much than doubled past year.

These efforts person played a important relation successful its globalization process, Vivo said, adding that it has provided products and services to much than 400 cardinal users successful much than 60 countries and regions astir the world.

The increasing accent connected establishing an overseas beingness comes arsenic the home smartphone marketplace has been declining for 18 months, according to probe steadfast Counterpoint. Though the income measurement of China's smartphone marketplace successful the 3rd 4th roseate 5 percent quarter-on-quarter, it inactive fell by astir 12 percent year-on-year.

Guo Tianxiang, a elder expert of marketplace probe institution IDC China, said amid the planetary economical downturn, the overseas smartphone marketplace is besides astatine a debased point. But it volition person much maturation imaginable and rebound faster than the home market. That is particularly truthful successful emerging countries and regions, specified arsenic Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Sponsoring sporting events is an businesslike mode to ace a market, but efforts successful merchandise prime and improvement are besides needed to truly entreaty to consumers successful a circumstantial country, experts added.