Micromax looks to bolster international operations, foray into South Africa

Micromax, which is facing intense competition from Samsung and Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, among others, in the Indian market, operates in Russia, Middle East, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Handset maker Micromax is foraying into the South African market as it looks to further bolster its international operations, which it expects to contribute as much as 20 per cent to its overall revenues by next fiscal.

The company is also looking at expanding its range of consumer durable products like television sets and smart accessories to Russia and Middle East.

Micromax, which is facing intense competition from Samsung and Chinese players like Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, among others, in the Indian market, operates in Russia, Middle East, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

"We will soon enter the South Africa market and have partnered Vodafone there. There is a big opportunity there, about 8 million devices a month," Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

He added the company has already introduced its consumer electronics in the SAARC region and is looking at extending the range to Russia and Middle East markets.

"Exports now is about 11 per cent of our revenues. We expect this to grow to 17-18 per cent or even 20 per cent next fiscal," he said.

Once a dominant player in the Indian handset market, Micromax began to struggle as Chinese brands like Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi began to rise in popularity among Indian consumers.

Helped by a Rs 1,500-crore order from the Chhattisgarh government, that it carried out with telecom operator Reliance Jio, Micromax made it back to the top five tally of smartphone players in the third quarter of this year.

India is one of the world's largest smartphone markets and growing steadily. Smartphone shipments in India touched an all-time high of 42.6 million units in the July-September 2018 quarter, registering a year-on-year growth of 9.1 per cent, according to research firm IDC.

Xiaomi led the smartphone tally with shipments of 11.7 million units and 27.3 per cent market share, followed by Samsung (9.6 million units, 22.6 per cent share), Vivo (4.5 million units, 10.5 per cent share), Micromax (2.9 million units, 6.9 per cent share) and Oppo (2.9 million units, 6.7 per cent share).

Micromax plans to launch more smartphones in the coming weeks to strengthen its position in the Indian market.