#Boycott China - When Sentiments Take Over Facts

From the last few weeks Boycott China is trending on all Social Media Platforms. It is mainly due to the current Covid-19 situation and the Border tensions between India and China that happened last week. Keeping Political aspects aside for a minute how practical is it going to actually implement Boycott China in a developing Country like India regarding tech?

How it all started?

Let's start from beginning, when the epicenter of Covid-19 shifted from China to Europe and US whole  World started probing the involvement of Chinese Government for the spread of this Virus. Some Countries have started directly blaming China for this mess. Now, when Corona Virus is getting to its peak in India and what happened last week on the border actually created an Anti China wave all over the Country. As a result many People started to uninstall the Chinese Apps from their Phones and insisted others to do so. People are calling out to Boycott Chinese Smartphones so that they can sit right in the hype created around them. Seeing #boycottChina trending on Twitter is common now a days. The most interesting fact is that these so called Social Media Influencers of our Country who have enough money to purchase an Iphone are influencing common People to Boycott Chinese Goods. Apart from these being vocal for local is really going to be beneficial for the Country but in Tech industry it is going to be a difficult task right now considering the current situation.

Current Smartphone Market in India

IDC Report for the Q4 2019 

Today when we look at the Indian Smartphone Market clearly, Chinese Brands are dominating over any other Brands in this space. Xiaomi is the biggest player in the market right now and it is no. 1 Smartphone brand from last 3 years after dethroning Samsung from the top. Realme which is just 2 years old Company is also ruling the Online Segment by offering great Devices at competitive price. When we talk about Offline segment even here conditions doesn't change much, Oppo and Vivo holds a big chunk of market share because of their heavy Marketing. Even if we talk about Premium Segment guess what? Not Samsung or Apple but OnePlus which is a Chinese Manufacturer is the top brand here. In India from last 2-3 years, every Chinese vendor has seen a tremendous growth in their total Shipments. There has been a drastic change in the last few years in a Country where people was Brand conscious while buying Phones and now these Chinese Manufacturers are having almost 75% of the total Market share. 

Flashback

Back when Smartphones were becoming a new asset in India Brands like HTC, Samsung, LG were the most Pouplar ones in the Android Segment but they were costly at that time. In a Country where Per Capita Income is much less not everyone was able to purchase those Premium Products. At that time these so called Indian Brands like Micromax, Intex, Lava etc who used to sell crappy android devices at cheaper rates to lure indian consumers made huge Profits. Then these Chinese Brands entered the Indian Smartphone Market in 2014 and totally blown out the competition by offering really good Hardware at affordable rates by which they started gaining Popularity. After that, the sales of these Indian Brands started going down and they eventually hit zero. I will talk about this later why this happened but for now we can't digest the fact that Chinese Product can be good and reliable when a few decades back they were  considered as having Quality issues. How China became the hub for the Manufacturing of every small component today? Well, this is all because of the skilled workforce and the investments that they did in improving Infrastructure over the years. It is not like an overnight success for them. The harsh truth is that rest of the World is still not anywhere close to China.

What if Chinese Manufacturers don't Exist?

Let's think of a situation where we actually eliminate all the Chinese Brands from the Indian Smartphone Market then, what options we have left with. Let's have a look :

Apple- Who assembles their all Phones in China and then Import to sell it in our Market and People here consider it as the most premium product.

Asus - They are super irregular with their Phone launches and there haven't been any Mid-Range Product launch from their side even after 2 years.

Samsung - They are having a tough time competing  and are offering SmartPhones having much less Processing power at higher price. They can't move out from their bad Exynos Processors for the Indian Market.

Nokia - Charging Premium for less capable Hardware just for the Branding and Software Updates .

Sony, HTC, LG, Motorola- You know they are dead right now.

You can see that there is not much options that we have left with for our next purchase of a Smartphone.

Probably, you would have to compromise on the raw power of the Smartphone and have to spend more Money to get a good Product that can meet all your needs whether it is Gaming or Camera. This is the same situation like in  US, People there can't think of good Smartphone that costs less than 500$, they simply go and buy an Iphone no matter how costly that Phone is.

Let's now introduce those Indian Manufacturers in the Picture, like if they revived again and started their business after 5 years. Are you going to trust these brands like Micromax and Intex who shamelessly Imported the whole crappy Phone from China and sold it in India after Re-branding. They had simply no R&D and talking about Service Support and Updates the less we speak is better. Their Success Formulae was simple, Play with the sentiments of Indians by placing a made in India branding on the box and you will be able to attract a good number of consumers to purchase your Products.

Even if a new Indian brand starts their business from today then How much Premium are you willing to pay more for a Product that is Made In India ?

Why We Need them?

Indian Smartphone Manufacturing Plant

Considering how much Price sensitive our Market is even then, we can get good phones under 200$ which can last easily for 2-3 years because of these Chinese vendors. Frankly speaking these Brands know the ultimate key to get success in India that's provide good Hardware and Price it as competitive as you can.

A big Positive thing is that the Brands like Xiaomi , Realme, Oneplus, Vivo  are actually creating job opportunities by assembling their Phones here in our country. Lakhs of Families survive because they are employed in these Phone Assembling Factories which have given them an opportunity to be self reliant. An interesting fact is  that there is a good number of woman workforce who are skilled enough to Assemble Smartphones in these Units. Not to forget that these brands have big R&D centers here in India and they make their products keeping Indian consumers in mind. Offline channels and retail stores are also dependent upon them to get a big number of Smartphone sales. They have contributed a lot in the "Make In India" Project of Indian Government. Don't you think they are boosting our economy by a big margin and creating a good number of jobs? Recently Indian government announced that India is now the second largest Smartphone Manufacturer in the world. It is a big leap for our country for sure.What do you think which Companies have contributed in this ? Isn't it clear now?

What Next?

It's a bitter truth that we can't  Manufacture a Phone without importing anything from China. There are various small components that China supplies to the whole World and indirectly everyone is dependent on them. We can't just Boycott anything if we don't have any good alternative for them at present. Eventually India is going to be next Manufacturing hub when Companies will slowly move out from China and will set their Plants here but right now we lack Infrastructure for this. We need a Skilled Manforce so that we can manufacture every big or small component in our own Country. This is going to be long process and will take time. Until then we have to make things favourable so that more and more Companies come here to establish their Headquarters. One day surely the dream of getting a truly Made In India Smartphone will happen and our economy is going to get a big boost by this move. 

Wrapping Up

Summing up what can i say is that even if we want to Boycott these Chinese Smartphone Brands right now we can't do this in reality. There are no substitutes for them who can offer good quality products at reasonable rates and can fulfill the huge demand of Smartphones in our Country. Smartphone Manufacturers doesn't get success overnight, it takes so much efforts to build a reputation of their own that these Chinese Manufacturers have achieved in last few years. Other thing is that we have a tendency to attach our sentiments to a Product where it is written Made in India even if it is directly imported from China and many Brands are using this false claim to fool Indian consumers for many years. In reality, you can't deny the fact that because of the competition among the Chinese smartphone vendors we are getting really good phones at cheap prices which wasn't possible a few years back. You trust it or not they are contributing to the betterment for our Economy indirectly by Manufacturing their Products here in India which is also giving so many benefits to the common people here. In this Globalization World, things doesn't work like what you see on Social Media. We can not stop the Global market flow from our own side and expect our economy to bloom. If it would have been possible surely, Indian Government would have stopped importing anything from China.

After sticking till the end if it doesn't change your Mind even now and you are going to Comment on Social Media Handles of Xiaomi or Realme to Boycott them here is a complex Question for you, Are you going to support the Indian brands (if there are any) that imports the whole phone from China and Rebrands it and Sells here contributing nothing to our Economy or the Brands that assembles their Phones here by our Indian work force and are contributing to our economy but have headquarters in China?