Hello from Shunyi again for Friday 13, unlucky for some but lucky for Xiaomi it seems. We also feature TikTok news, China Valentines, Huawei, and of course, our elephants.
Xiaomi Beheads another Leader
This time it is Samsung as they relinquish the No. 1 smartphone brand title in Europe shipping 12.7 million units. Up 67% YOY. However on closer analysis, it is worth bearing in mind that this data is for the second quarter of 2020, meaning there is still the second half to play. It is a brave, nay foolish captain that claims the game one based on half time scores. Espcially as market share was 25 to 24.
Furthermore Xiaomi’s sales largely came from Redmi and Mi, branded phones from consumers in Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Spain. Europe is a very big market, still recovering form the pandemic. Whilst Mi and Redmi phones could probably be considered entry level to mid range devices we seem to recall Samsung announcing some time back it was prepared to surrender this market segment in the future to focus on top end, power user handsets. So, as always, it depends on how you spin numbers; top brand by sales or revenue.
Still it is a notable achievement for Xiaomi which should not be underrated, especially as just a few years ago they were considered “unworthy,” even in their domestic China market. Xiaomi have always had a “future” orientated philosophy, being the first brand to shun B&M High Street stores and focus entirely on the On-line market. The next 6 months will be interesting.
TikTok Strikes Time on Facebook
Ahh don’t you just love a dramatic, cliche riddled headline – we thought it was rather good!
We have mentioned the Nikkei Asia in another post,: China Local Brands Gain Favour. In this post they take a look at the top downloaded apps for 2020.
Coming in ahead of the field, was, as you likely guessed from our headline, was Tik Tok chocking out Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger in downloads, even in the U.S. In fact, total viewing time for TikTok in the U.S. and U.K. is longer than that for YouTube.
On one hand this is good news for TikTok seeing as the Facebook family had the support of a certain ex President. However, Facebook may be the author of it’s own demise with the sharing of info between Facebook and WhatsApp and the perceived risk of security. This same fear, plus a growing trend generally toward personal data protection also saw Telegram increase its rankings.
Short video apps continue to rise in popularity with more apps released to challenge Tik Tok etall. Also moving up in content rankings are what is termed “Vocal Social Media” or, in other words, opinionated comment similar to Aim2D articles! For the full rundown and more detailed background please read the Nikkei Asia article: TikTok Overtakes Facebook as the World’s Most Downloaded App
Huawei
Sticking with a week of mostly China tech news, seems there may be some truth in the old British proverb: Every cloud has a silver lining” as Huawei increases its efforts to popularise its Harmony O/S. According to this story Huawei steps up push to popularise HarmonyOS from China Daily, over 30 million users have upgraded from their old Android O/S. I would seem that, in China at least, the massive acceptance and uptake of 5G devices has also created an appetite for devices that are IOT capable with the ability to communicate across smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Huawei id no doubt expecting that as the world also turns onto 5G and IOT, they and Harmony will be at the head of the feeding trough. Being pushed out of the Android family may turn out to be to Huawei’s long term advantage.
Chinese Valentine’s Day
Tomorrow, Saturday 14th August is China’s Valentines Day or Qixi Festival. As usual the usual suspect brands are gearing up for massive sales from what is traditionally a “Good Business ” period,. Driven to even further extremes this year by Covid recovery spending. Or so they hope.
Usual suspects cover luxury brands, both domestic and international, as well as chocolates flowers, cosmetics, perfumes and clothing. This short piece Foreign firms pin hopes on market as consumer confidence recovers from China Daily is written from an international lux brand perspective. However, as we have pointed out on numerous occasions, don’t let the word LUXURY narrow your thinking. If you have not already organised a strategy and marketing campaign for your product this year, it maybe a tad too late now. So make a note of it in your diary and get organised early for 2022.
And for those who are a little shy, or coy about public displays of affection, China rail is playing cupid. For around 900rmb, you can have your digital message for your sweetheart displayed on routes from Beijing to Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou and 13 two-way hi speed trains as this story from China Daily explains.
Those Elephants
Speaking of being a trifle late, yep, we know it has already made global headlines but just in case you missed it, those wandering pachyderms are, slowly returning home. Seems they were taking their protest to the seat of local – and courtesy of social media- national government. They walked to raise global awareness of the conditions and shrinking environment humans are imposing on other species.
After several months and several hundred kilometres of travel not a single beast; elephant or human, was harmed. No one rushed out and shot them or lobbied for the rules to be relaxed to make hunting legal. Human and elephant, working it out together, slowly and peacefully. What a wonderful role model for the world! Now, let’s just see if we can reverse the conditions that drove them to wander.
China Images
Finally, for this week, we leave you with some images from Henan in the early hours of last Friday, – as we were putting our publication to bed – Zhengzhou city deployed over 680 trucks with mist cannons to sanitise over 1,700 streets. Involving over 3, 200 people areas near hospitals, shopping malls and bus stops were sprayed. As always are galleries come courtesy of Caixin Global.
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