OPPO, a China-based smartphone brand, has changed its India CEO, and said it has sold around 400,000 phones in India since its entry last year.
It also said it is targeting to sell 1.5 million units in 2015.
The company has been among the most aggressive in terms of expenditure on promotions, hoardings and so on over the past one year. However, the company does not play the low-margin, high volume game like its competitors and fellow Chinese brands Xiaomi, Huawei, Phicomm, Lenovo, Meizu and OnePlus. For example, a single model of Lenovo, the K3 Note, has sold an estimated 400,000 units in about six weeks.
As a result, OPPO, Vivo and Gionee do not create the same level of excitement and buzz among customers as the other Chinese brands. However, when it comes to on-the-ground presence, these brands are arguably better represented than the others.
OPPO said it was appointing Mike Wang as the new India CEO effective from 18th August, 2015. He is joining after doing in-depth research into the South Asian markets for a year, OPPO said.
“Mike has nearly two decades of experience in mobile handset industry and brings with him a wealth of management and leadership expertise.”
Mike joined OPPO in 2005 in its initial years and has held a wide range of leadership positions across South-East Asian markets.
“Indian mobile market is growing exponentially and is the top priority in our expansion plans for South Asia region this year,” Wang said.
Mike replaces Tom Lu who was CEO since the company’s entry into India. Tom was key to the company’s expanding their footprint in India market.
OPPO entered the Indian market in January 2014 and is aiming for rapid growth and expansion across target markets in India.
OPPO India is speeding up sales and service network and expects a fair growth and a bigger share of the market in the times to come.
It has plans to expand more service centers this year. As of now, OPPO has 120 service centers across India and are targeting to open 200 service centres by end of 2015.
