Chinese smartphone makers are increasing their presence in the global market

Chinese smartphone makers are increasing their presence in the global market. This year, we’ve already seen Lenovo Group and Huawei Technologies gain global market share, posing a threat to market leader Samsung Electronics 005930.SE +0.97%. Now, other lesser-known Chinese players are also trying to expand overseas.

 Coolpad, a smartphone maker based in Shenzhen, plans to spend millions of dollars this year to promote its brand in Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S., its senior executive told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview.

So why are the Chinese players all focusing on overseas?

“China’s smartphone market is getting saturated,” said BNP Paribas analyst Peter Yu. “If you want to keep growing, you have to look outside.”

Between 2011 and 2013, smartphone shipments in China nearly quadrupled, according to research firm IDC. Now, the rate of annual growth is expected to slow. Meanwhile, smartphone sales are rising sharply in emerging markets like India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where many consumers are still replacing basic cellphones with smartphones. According to IDC, 89% of all mobile phones shipped in China in the first half of this year were smartphones. In India, smartphones accounted for only 28% of shipments in the same period.

For Chinese players, overseas expansion is a way to keep up their growth and, possibly, to make their business more profitable. “Price competition is too intense in China,” says IDC analyst Kiranjeet Kaur.

Source: Review China mobile phones. Find out which inexpensive China phones are worth buying. Reviewsinclude smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets.