Until 2017, a mere 27 percent of Indians were using smartphones. But, by 2022, smartphone users in India will likely account for 60 percent of the population as per Cisco’s 13th annual Visual Networking Index (VNI).

India has steadily grown as one of the largest markets for digital consumers, with 560 million internet subscribers in 2018, second only to China. And as the number of consumers increase, so does the demand for smartphones.

Catering to this demand, Chinese smartphone maker vivo mobiles, who made its foray in India in 2014, quickly rose to the challenge and adapted to the dynamic nature of the smartphone market.

Until June 2019, vivo had shipped almost 5.8 million smartphones to India. And by October 2019, it clocked the highest ever share in the market at 23 percent. The brand captured consumers’ interest by introducing a phone with the first pop-up selfie camera, and creating the first phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

In less than five years of its entry into the country, the brand is all set to invest Rs 7,500 crore towards manufacturing in India in the next few years, in a bid to create products that are purely made in India. In fact, every vivo smartphone currently selling in India has been made in India.

In this episode of Tech Toyz, CNBC-TV18’s Megha Vishwanath chats with Nipun Marya, Director of Brand Strategy, vivo mobiles, about the brand’s meteoric rise, the hits and misses in the past five years, the formulas that succeeded, their 'Make In India' initiatives, and how they’ve put their learnings to the test.

This is a partnered post.

First Published:Dec 27, 2019 4:19 PM IST