Open a new game of going overseas

At present, China's economy and China's listed companies have entered a new era of going overseas and are facing new opportunities for a new round of globalization.

In the context of the restructuring of the global economic structure, how to meet the new situation of going overseas and seize new opportunities is being paid attention to by more and more Chinese listed companies.

At present, as an important source of innovation in the world, China has given birth to a large number of listed companies focusing on building technology brands. How to share the products and services with a sense of science and technology with the world and open up a broader market has become a key topic for these companies to focus on.

Open a new bureau of going overseas, listed companies are in action!

Today, let's focus on the wonderful story of Transsion Holdings (SH688036), a listed company, from the African continent to emerging markets around the world, and explore the new practice of technology brands going overseas.

As one of the representatives of technology brands going overseas, Transsion Holdings is based in China and facing emerging markets around the world, and is committed to providing users with high-quality multi-brand smart terminals with mobile phones as the core, and providing users with mobile Internet services based on self-developed smart terminal operating systems and traffic portals. The company owns TECNO, itel and Infinix, which are well-known mobile phone brands in emerging markets, as well as oraimo, a digital accessories brand, Syinix, a home appliance brand, and Carlcare, an after-sales service brand.

At present, TRANSSION's products have entered more than 70 countries and regions around the world, forming a sales network covering major emerging markets such as Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. In the process of enterprise development, TRANSSION has always focused on consumers in emerging markets, paying attention to the unmet needs of people in emerging markets, so that more local users can share the charm of technological development.

Based on local innovation

Precisely meet the needs of users

In the process of expanding overseas markets, TRANSSION has always adhered to the development concept of "Glocal" global thinking and localized innovation, carried out product planning and technology research and development in a highly appropriate manner, and made continuous innovation efforts at the technical level to fit the digital divide, achieving precise positioning in emerging markets and breakthroughs to meet diverse needs.

Focusing on consumers in emerging markets, TRANSSION has established a multi-brand and product series to meet the needs of different consumers for different consumer segments, and continuously improved user experience and brand advantages based on the positioning and value selection of each brand. TECNO is a mid-to-high-end brand targeting middle-class consumers in emerging markets, providing leading camera technology and excellent user experience. Infinix provides a fashionable and intelligent product experience for young people who pursue fashion technology; As a mass brand, itel provides high-quality, affordable and durable products to a wide range of basic consumers.

In order to provide users with high-quality products that are highly suitable for their needs, TRANSSION continues to adhere to long-term R&D investment and innovation, continue to gain insight into the consumption habits and characteristics of local users, concentrate R&D resources on the pain points that local people really need to solve, and use global technology and standards to create localized high-quality products and services.

Taking the African market as an example, Transsion is the first domestic mobile phone manufacturer to enter Africa, with years of technical precipitation, and has a deep insight and understanding of the African market and user groups. TRANSSION has deeply customized camera devices for dark-skinned consumers to meet the needs of African localization, and has independently developed a number of core technological achievements, including dark-skinned face detection and recognition technology, body bone key point detection, dark-skinned portrait segmentation, and multi-skin color intelligent beautification, to improve the photo experience of local users. For African minority languages, TRANSSION has spent many years developing the world's first customized mobile phone smart assistant for the African market and the first overseas offline dialogue system, providing local users with intelligent services such as minority language translation, Q&A, language interaction, mobile phone operation, task execution, and text generation. In addition, in response to the problems of frequent power outages in some parts of African countries, large temperature difference between morning and evening, excessive sweat on users' hands, and relatively backward communication infrastructure, TRANSSION has also developed low-cost high-voltage fast charging technology, long-life battery technology with wide temperature range, current control technology for ambient temperature detection, anti-sweat USB port, and UPS super signal enhancement technology.

TECNO Folding Flagship PHANTOM V Fold2

These innovative and localized designs truly solve the pain points of local users in the process of use, and are favored by African smartphone users. Transsion mobile phones not only occupy the first place in smartphone shipments in Africa all year round, but are also known as the "king of Africa" by the industry, and have won a solid reputation among users. In the list of "Top 100 Most Loved Brands by African Consumers in 2024" released by African Business, Transsion's three major mobile phone brands TECNO, Infinix and itel ranked 8th, 25th and 31st respectively, and oraimo, a digital accessories brand, ranked 81st. In the top 100 list, TECNO has ranked first among the selected Chinese brands for many years.

In the Southeast Asian market, the huge population base and high proportion of young people make it one of the few mobile games in the world, and the lifestyle around mobile games is popular among the younger generation. Transsion's Infinix brand has a deep understanding of local consumer preferences and fashion trends, and incorporates these factors into product design. In 2024, Infinix launched the gaming flagship GT 20 Pro, and launched in-depth cooperation with the world's popular games IPPUBGM, MLBB, and HOK, making the GT 20 Pro the official official event for many top e-sports events. Infinix has also signed contracts with local gaming clubs and held activities such as campus league mobile game tours, establishing deep connections with a wide range of gaming enthusiasts. According to Canalys data, in 2024, Transsion ranked third in the Southeast Asian smartphone market, accounting for 16% of the market share, and in the fourth quarter, it topped the Southeast Asian market for the first time with strong performance in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Infinix gaming flagship GT 20 Pro

At the same time, with the accelerated expansion of emerging markets around the world, TRANSSION has also focused on solving the technical difficulties related to portrait shooting and localized scene experience for multiple skin tone user groups, developed TRANSSION's multi-skin color imaging technology system, established a new standard for multi-skin portrait technology and multi-skin color science, and built core imaging technology capabilities to support multi-regional markets. At present, this technology has been first applied to Transsion's TECNO CAMON 30 series products, providing users with a more diverse real skin tone imaging experience. Once the TECNO CAMON 30 series products were launched, they won wide praise from users in many overseas markets.

Transsion multi-skin imaging technology system

Through localized and differentiated product development and sales strategies, TRANSSION continues to enhance its influence in overseas markets. According to IDC data, in 2024, Transsion smartphones will have a market share of 8.6% in the global market, ranking fourth.

Localized operations insist on being a long-distance runner

Having been deeply involved in emerging markets for many years, TRANSSION has always emphasized being a "long-distance runner", adhered to localized operations, implemented localization strategies from multiple dimensions such as R&D, marketing, channels, management, and after-sales service, deeply participated in local economic and social construction, and made steady progress on the road of "co-creation and sharing".

In order to reassure consumers, TRANSSION has built its own after-sales service system and built a professional after-sales service brand, Carlcare, where the products are sold, the after-sales outlets will be built simultaneously. Through perfect after-sales service, users can buy and use with peace of mind. At present, Carlcare has more than 2,000 service touchpoints (including third-party cooperative service outlets) around the world, and is one of the major multi-category after-sales service solution providers in emerging markets. Carlcare has also established the Carlcare Repair Training Institute in Nigeria to not only train outstanding technical talents for the local mobile phone after-sales service industry, but also provide employment skills training for local youth.

Carlcare Repair Training Academy, where trainees are doing hands-on repairs

While expanding its business, Transsion has also actively promoted the development of local industries, invested in the construction of factories, provided a large number of jobs, and cultivated talents for the mobile phone industry. TRANSSION has set up manufacturing centers in Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh and other places, which not only improves the company's ability to respond to local market demand and flexible production, but also brings the global ICT industry chain and advanced manufacturing technology to Africa and South Asia.

In Bangladesh, the first phase of TRANSSION ISMARTU Bangladesh factory has a total investment of about 140 million yuan (about 22 million US dollars), a construction area of more than 22,000 square meters, and a monthly output of 400,000 smart phones and 600,000 feature phones, to meet the growing demand of local consumers for smart terminal devices.

In Ethiopia, Transsion Ethiopia is an excellent export-earning enterprise, in addition to manufacturing and selling Transsion's intelligent terminal products, the production capacity meets the sales of Ethiopia's domestic market, and effectively radiates to other surrounding African countries.

TRANSSION IMART Bangladesh Factory

The multi-brand layout and high-end upgrading continue to burst out the vitality of the enterprise

In recent years, with the rapid economic growth, the increase in Internet penetration and the increase in the proportion of young people, the demand for smart terminal products in emerging markets has continued to rise. At the same time, the gradual improvement of infrastructure and the acceleration of digital transformation have also created a broad space for mobile Internet services. Seizing the opportunities of digitalization, networking and intelligent development in emerging markets, Transsion will continue to increase its efforts and accelerate the development of mobile Internet and category expansion businesses on the basis of deepening its mobile phone business, creating the second and third curves of enterprise growth, and constantly improving the business ecological model of "mobile phone + mobile Internet services + home appliances, digital accessories and other expanded categories", and helping more users connect with the world through the organic combination of its own software and hardware businesses.

Transsion's three major mobile phone brands, TECNO, itel and Infinix, have vigorously expanded their business categories, and joined forces with digital accessories brand oraimo and household appliance brand Syinix to launch full-ecological products such as mobile phone basic accessories, smart wearables, TWS earphones, laptops, TVs, etc., to create a full-scene smart life experience.

TECNO AIoT ecological products

At the same time, TRANSSION vigorously develops mobile Internet services with good experience and local culture, and explores new growth drivers and development paths. Focusing on the smart terminal operating system (OS), TRANSSION has developed an app store, a game center, an advertising distribution platform, a mobile phone manager and many related tool applications. TRANSSION has also carried out strategic cooperation with a number of leading domestic Internet companies in music, games, short videos, news aggregation and other application fields, and actively developed and incubated mobile Internet products. With its mobile phone and mobile Internet services, TRANSSION has opened up full-link operations in many African countries, built a new business and technology platform, and empowered global developers to expand their business in Africa from development, testing, promotion, and monetization, while bringing convenience to consumers' lives.

While extending the business boundaries horizontally, TRANSSION is also deeply exploring the potential of the mobile phone business, accelerating the mid-to-high-end strategy, promoting the upgrading of product structure, and vigorously developing a new generation of information technology such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. In the past two years, TECNO, a mobile phone brand under Transsion, has successively launched high-end models such as the first left-right folding smartphone TECNO PHANTOM V Fold, the first clamshell folding flagship TECNO PHANTOM V Flip 5G, and released the ultra-thin and light three-fold concept phone PHANTOM ULTIMATE 2 and the scroll-screen concept mobile phone PHANTOM Ultimate.

In terms of the layout of end-to-end AI technology, Transsion focuses on the implementation of application scenarios, focusing on creating deeply localized "practical AI". At present, Transsion has released TECNO AI, which brings a new generation of intelligent assistant Ella and innovative interactive experience, focuses on key user scenarios, uses AI to enhance imaging, communication, office efficiency and creativity, and develops a series of AI-assisted function applications, and continues to iteratively promote the comprehensive AI of the system to improve the mobile experience of users' smart devices. In September 2024, the artificial intelligence joint laboratory jointly built by Transsion Holdings and MediaTek was officially unveiled in Shenzhen. The two parties will integrate superior technical resources in the field of artificial intelligence, accelerate the application and popularization of AI technology in smart terminals, and bring a new generation of AI smartphones to users in emerging markets. A number of mobile phone products, including the PHANTOM V Fold2 5G, the second-generation folding screen flagship of the TECNO PHANTOM series, have been fully equipped with AI functions.

TECNO unveils the new TECNO AIOS at MWC 2024

Diversified brand layout and high-end development may open up new growth space for Transsion. With the acceleration of consumption upgrading in emerging markets, TRANSSION's continuous efforts in the mid-to-high-end field will open up new incremental markets for them and promote the company to a new stage of high-quality development.