In search of a piece of the billion-dollar Brazilian market smartphonescompanies like Oppo e Xiaomi has reinforced launches and partnerships in Brazil. But the Chinese companies’ challenge in this segment is not so simple: still highly distributed through the deregulated market, these companies still need to face established brands and strengthen their production and after-sales structure in Brazil.
If global data is taken into account, these Chinese manufacturers already have a relevant share in total smartphone sales: 24%, a number that has been increasing year after year according to the research company Counterpoint.
Samsung e Apple () are the absolute leaders in the segment globally, with approximately 35% of the market.
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In Brazil, the concentration makes the entry of Chinese women even more difficult. According to Andréia Sousa, an analyst at IDC, the two leading national companies could reach a share of up to 70%. Although IDC does not list the position or market share by manufacturers, other surveys tend to point to Samsung as the absolute leader, followed by Motorola.
“The Brazilian market is very challenging, 90% of it is concentrated in four brands. Any new entrant needs to compete for the 10% that is left when they arrive here”, says Sousa.
A Oppo decided to try. In November, it held an event in São Paulo announcing its new strategy for the largest country in Latin America. In addition to a distribution and technical assistance partnership with Magaluwhich should bring the company’s cell phones to a thousand stores by the end of 2025, it was also announced that the brand’s devices will be present in all of the company’s units Of course in Brazil starting next year.
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“In every market we enter, we don’t look at the short term, we think about a long-term business,” said Oppo’s global marketing president, Billy Zhang, in an interview with InfoMoney. “Our biggest difficulty will be having a complete understanding of the local market, consumer differences. I believe that the most global thing is to be local”, said the executive, who prefers not to make projections about sales or revenue.
The company took advantage of the event to announce the arrival of its smartphone OPPO A40intermediate line. It joins three other devices available in Brazilian stores today.
During the presentation, the company made a point of reinforcing its commitment to reaching the number of one representative — whether for sales or technical assistance — every kilometer by 2026, which would include partnerships with Magalu () and Claro or even the opening of own stores
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“What keeps the biggest brands with a share The support is very large, even with the arrival of new ones”, says Sousa, from IDC. “But today the cases of devices failing are fewer, people have cared less about the issue of support. The exchange cycle increased from one year, two, to two and a half to three years”, he ponders.
In recent years, Xiaomi has benefited from the exit of LG of Brazil, in 2021, and strengthened sales in the region as part of a global expansion strategy. According to Counterpoint, it is already the third best-selling in Latin America, based on data from the second quarter of 2024.
Price and the gray market
In the end, what really motivates the Brazilian consumer’s choice is the good old price. In 2023, the average value of a smartphone purchased in the country was R$1,601, according to IDC.
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With high interest rates and inflation, even those who care more about the configurations of their devices end up giving up in favor of a less expensive deal. It is a scenario that favors the parallel market, called gray market (or “gray market”), made up of cell phones without approval from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
It is through it that many of the Chinese brand devices that have been gaining market share in Brazil enter the country, especially through Paraguay. “Within the volume we observed, the Chinese still lead”, says Sousa.
Although Xiaomi, Realme, Transsion and Oppo have regular operations and smartphones approved in Brazil, the expansion of marketplaces online in large retailers stimulated alternative commerce to the companies’ official channels.
With better prices and even greater variety, the so-called “gray market” gains space. This market’s share of revenue jumped from 8.73% in 2021 to 9.79% in 2022 and ended 2023 with 16.38%.
In the third quarter of 2024 alone, total smartphone sales revenue reached R$17.2 billion, according to IDC Brasil. In 2023, the accumulated amount was R$38.32 billion.
Oppo’s participation in the country is still timid compared to its competitors, but the The goal is to be the second best-selling brand in Brazil in five years. In Southeast Asia, the company claims to be the first in market share, ranking top in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.
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