Realme founder plays down impact of India’s Covid-19 crisis on budget smartphone maker, saying demand could take off once worst is over
- Realme founder says he is not too worried by the pandemic and hopes the company can ship 70 million phones in 2021
- India has been crucial for Chinese smartphone makers looking for growth amid market saturation back home but Covid-19 crisis is now weighing
India’s recent surge in Covid-19 infections is not only a public health tragedy, it is also playing havoc with the country’s ambitions to be a smartphone manufacturing superpower and the plans of many Chinese tech companies to ramp up operations there.
One of those companies affected is Chinese vendor Realme, a top 5 smartphone brand in India, which said on Tuesday that it has “adjusted its timeline of product launches in India based on the local situation”. This adjustment came after market research firm TrendForce forecast that India would see a 7.5 per cent annual decrease in smartphone production this year.
“Our current business development in India has inevitably been affected [by the Covid-19 crisis],” said Sky Li Bingzhong, Realme’s founder, in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post in Shenzhen. Li said his current priority is the safety of employees and he has been offering any staff affected help with vaccination and other health care costs.
However, Li said he believes Realme’s business in India can recover quickly and that global growth momentum will continue as “the situation hopefully improves”. India is currently grappling with the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, with daily cases of 329,942 and deaths of 3,876 on Tuesday, according to the country’s health ministry.
“The pandemic has impacted the whole smartphone industry, but [it] is limited and temporary,” said Li, who established Realme in India three years ago. “The smartphone is an essential product and demand will not disappear. Once the pandemic crisis eases, smartphones could sell more than ever.”
