Recent rise of Chinese brands likely to re-inforce competition in global tech sector, says DBS Economics

The recent rise of Chinese technological brands at the expense of a wide range of small players in Europe, US and Asia, could possibly reinforce foreign concerns about Chinese competition in the global tech sector, according to the latest report from DBS Group Research.

Chinese firms have been growing rapidly in the smartphone sector. Huawei boosted its global market share to 14.6 percent in 2018 from 10.5 percent in 2017, on par with Apple’s 14.8 percent; while Oppo and Xiaomi have gained in the last 2-3 years.

Chinese brands account for more than 40 percent of global smartphone shipments today, far exceeding Samsung’s 21 percent. The decline of Samsung started from 2014, well before the deterioration in South Korea-China political ties and the Chinese boycott of Korean products in 2017.

The decline of Apple started from 2013, also far before the US-China trade war broke out. The advancement of Chinese smartphone makers is not new and has been ongoing for many years, which could be attributed to the structural factors such as technology/product maturity, price competitiveness and marketing success.