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- Author/Brand Officer
Introduction: Chinese technology companies go overseas, Tik Tok is investigated, Indonesian officials ban cross-border e-commerce, Xiaomi is confiscated by India, and there are almost no people who have not stepped on the pit.
But there is also a company called Transsion, although it is not well-known in China, but in Africa, it can be described as a hegemonic existence.
According to Transsion's latest 2023 performance forecast, the annual revenue in 2023 is expected to be 62.1 billion yuan.
At a time when domestic smart phone brands are still rolling in the domestic market, Transsion has stepped into the blue ocean market of the "third world".
When domestic smartphones finally began to enter the Southeast Asian market, Transsion has been deeply involved in Africa, a market with more room for economic development.
What is "long-termism" and what is "pattern", this wave is transmitted in the atmosphere.
01. There is no mobile phone that cannot be sold, only a dealer who has not found the right place
It is rumored that the founder of Transsion resigned from Bird Mobile.
When Zhu Zhaojiang, the founder of Transsion, went on a business trip to Africa, he predicted that there would be a vast world of mobile phones in Africa in the future.
He applied to the company to enter Africa, but was rejected without any consideration, and simply quit his job and started his own business.
Bird mobile phone is the well-known "fighter in the mobile phone", and now the "fighter" has become a third-rate brand, and the sound transmission from Bird is getting bigger and bigger in Africa.
How popular is Transsion in Africa?
In the third quarter of this year, Transsion's shipments accounted for 31% of the smartphone market in the Middle East and Africa.
That is, about one of the three Africans or Middle Easterners who buy mobile phones is Transsion.
Under it, respectively, Samsung and Xiaomi.
In some countries, Transsion is even more popular with Africans, such as in Somalia, where Transsion has a market share of 80%, and in Nigeria, where it has 52.67%.
Transsion mobile phones are placed in China, I am afraid that there is no splash of "death", but if you use WeChat and QQ, these two software can squeeze out the memory.
But in Africa, Transsion has been very popular.
It turns out that there is no mobile phone that cannot be sold, only a dealer who has not found the right place.
02. Chinese brand, African characteristics
When the domestic thousand-yuan machine has been equipped with "Snapdragon 8+", "8GB+256GB" and "120Hz high brush screen" as standard, some countries with greater economic development potential are still using PHS at the same price.
It is said that after Samsung withdrew from the Chinese market, it is still the first in sales in the world, this is because the proportion of low-end machine sales is not low.
Domestic mobile phone manufacturers want to have the same price and the same configuration as Samsung, I am afraid that they will be sprayed with blood.
As for Transsion, as early as the first half of 2016, the noise of domestic "friend businessmen" had nothing to do with him, and he specialized in exporting.
According to the 2019 Transsion prospectus, Transsion has 8 factories in China, and has factories in Ethiopia, India and other countries.
In Africa, in addition to Transsion, there are even second-hand Redmi, iPhone 6, iPhone 7 and so on that were launched four or five years ago.
Now that Apple's mobile phones are out to iPhone15, the African brothers are mainly eight versions behind the international server.
If a digital evaluation blogger hears about Transsion's "big name" and asks someone to buy a machine back from Africa at a high price, I am afraid that he will be disappointed.
Yes, this phone is not available in China yet.
Transsion has three subsidiaries in Africa: itel, Infinix and TECON.
ITEL focuses on low-end feature phones.
Infinix is all about youth, fashion and technology.
TECON mainly promotes the mid-to-high-end.
It can be seen that the targets are OPPO, realme and OnePlus respectively.
In Africa, Transsion's best-selling mobile phone model is called "Boom J8" and was launched in 2020.
On the day of the release, more than a dozen African celebrities brought the goods, and the hot search on Twitter was the first, and it directly became a hit.
This name is still strange and shameful to pronounce, it may be to bully the African people who do not understand Chinese, so give him a civilized Chinese name, and call him "Jiba".
"Boom J8" memory "2G+32G", front pixel 5 million, rear pixel 8 million, screen resolution 480*960.
Retro, really retro, even in 2020, such a configuration in the Chinese market is a little too retro.
But there is a reason why the "J8 Boom" can become Transsion's highest-selling mobile phone in Africa.
At the time of its release, this mobile phone was a headset for buying a mobile phone, and this mobile phone was also known as a "music mobile phone".
This behavior seems ordinary, but it captures the pain points of the African people.
In China, ordinary people may think that there is something great about headphones? If you just want to "listen to it", you can buy a pair of headphones for less than 50 yuan on Taobao.
But in Africa, where there is a lot of potential for economic development, the price of headphones is not so easy to get down.
But for South Africans, music can be as natural as breathing, especially drum music.
In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the classic theme song "Waka Waka", although it was sung by Shakira, a white female singer from Colombia, the style is a thorough South African music style.
Therefore, among young Africans, MP4 or headphones are compared, and even if the headphones are broken, they must be worn on their ears when they go out, and this is the card.
The "Boom J8" headphones are free when you buy them, isn't this doubly dignified?
On the other hand, it is also considered that African people can sing and dance, sing and dance anytime and anywhere, the sound volume of this mobile phone is large, and several people can be used as a square dance speaker.
Transsion also captured a pain point for Africans, that is, the "tanning" photo algorithm for black people.
Because of skin color problems, in a dim environment, people and backgrounds are inseparable, and often the facial features are blackened.
However, Transsion is specifically aimed at the problem of skin color, and it is said that it has invested in three small goals and made a special photo algorithm.
Black people shoot like brown people, yellow people shoot like white people, and white people shoot out as if they are directly into the soil.
The weather in Africa is hot, and some Africans sweat quite seriously in summer, so Transsion has developed an anti-corrosion mobile phone shell material.
And because the foundation is not perfect, the power supply in some parts of Africa is unstable, and the battery capacity must be guaranteed no matter what configuration Transsion mobile phones have done "subtraction".
Although the "Boom J8" is equipped with a beggar's version, the battery capacity is 5,000 mAh, which is twice that of the iPhone 12 produced in the same year.
And also because of the problem of imperfect infrastructure, in Africa, it is often the telecom operators of each region that each region.
Some Africans often have to carry several cards with them.
In response to this situation, Transsion has specially made a "four cards and four standby" mobile phone, which can directly install the card in the mobile phone without the need to carry it extra.
Now it seems that these configurations, the existing domestic mobile phone manufacturers, can do any one of them, but only Transsion is still the first to occupy this market.
This may be the uniqueness of Transsion's product managers.
Just like Sony improved the radio and launched the Walkman.
In fact, in terms of technology, the Walkman does not have any deeper level of technology than the radio.
However, because it was more in line with the needs of people in the 80s of the 20th century, it was very popular as soon as it was launched.
03, "Copycat King" Transsion, to do a one-stop service of mobile phone software in Africa
In terms of hardware, Transsion has made certain adjustments in response to the special conditions of the people in Africa and in the case of cost savings.
Then in terms of software, Transsion can be called a "stitching monster".
Chinese technology companies go overseas and "move the routines that they are tired of playing at home to abroad" are basically old routines.
For example, the overseas version of Pinduoduo TEMU and the overseas version of the short drama software ReelShort have won the "volume" in the domestic market where there are many heroes, and they can be called "big guys returning to the novice village" abroad.
The bad news is that the supporting software developed by Transsion for the African market has "stitched" domestic products, and the good news is that it is fully "sewn".
There is NetEase Cloud Music in China, and there is Boomplay on the pre-installed software of Transsion mobile phones, and now the monthly active users have reached 50 million, which is the first in Africa.
At present, Boomplay is mainly relying on advertising revenue, but the user's mind has been cultivated, and it is believed that with the progress of the African economy, Boompaly will soon be able to make a profit.
There is Douyin in China, and Vskit under Transsion, which belongs to Africans' own "TIK TOK".
Transsion not only does Vskit, because there are fewer "Internet celebrities" in Africa, they also make their own MCN and create their own Internet celebrities.
Looking at the promotional posters of this software, in addition to the different skin tones, the painting style of these short videos is really familiar.
China has Alipay, WeChat Pay, and Transsion has also obtained payment licenses from major countries: Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana.
In addition, there is also the "African version of Alibaba" PalmPay, the "African version of Baidu" Phonenix, the "African version of Toutiao" Scooper and so on.
What is in China, Transsion is in the "copycat" abroad.
Even in the arrangement of dealers, Transsion has learned the methods of domestic VIVO.
In China, no matter which corner you have, it seems that you can see VIVO's dealers.
In Africa, almost every village and town can also see distributors of Transsion's brands.
If something goes wrong with the phone, consumers can easily find the nearest store for repair.
And every time a new product is released, Transsion's advertisements are also paved all over the streets.
04. Without a technical "moat", you will repeat the mistakes of the "former boss".
Although I think that I have a pretty good time in Transsion, it is still not without hidden worries.
The current Transsion may be the waveguide of the past.
In the past, although the waveguide mobile phone was a smash hit, it did not have its own technology, and was unwilling to invest in research and development.
At present, Transsion Mobile has indeed adapted to the special folk conditions of Africa, penetrated into the local area, and became the first batch of people to eat crabs in "domestic mobile phones going to sea".
But at present, it seems that Transsion mobile phones do not have the technology to be called a "moat".
Its so-called core technology, such as camera algorithms, is not a difficult technology for large mobile phone manufacturers, such as OPPO and VIVO, which are themselves mainly engaged in taking pictures.
Its business model is also quite familiar to many domestic mobile phone manufacturers, to be precise, it is Transsion that has copied the "sales password" of some domestic mobile phone brands in Africa.
Relying only on the current model, Transsion can't go out of Africa, go to the more developed European and American markets, and other mobile phone brands can easily "copy homework".
Just like Honor, it will enter the Middle East and Africa market in 2023, with a growth of 125% in the third quarter, ranking among the top 10.
If Huawei wants to enter the African market, it can quickly take root in the country and even turn into a telecom operator by relying on the communication projects contracted everywhere.
In particular, Transsion's "wealth code" is not difficult to reproduce, and it is no secret for a long time, otherwise the author would not be able to write this article.
Just like the domestic motorcycles that used to go to sea, once in Southeast Asia, domestic motorcycles once beat Nissan motorcycles by relying on cheapness, and the market share in Vietnam was once as high as 80%.
At the same time as the price war, the price reduction of domestic motorcycles is not to improve production efficiency, but to "reduce allocation".
As soon as the Vietnamese put it together, Chinese-made motorcycles will have to be overhauled in two or three years, and Nissan motorcycles, although expensive, can be driven for many years, and finally abandoned Chinese motorcycles.
Africa's economy will not remain static, nor will the purchasing power of Africans always be at that level.
But if Transsion fails to take advantage of the current opportunity to develop a real "moat", what awaits them may still repeat the mistakes of Bird mobile phones and domestic motorcycles.
What do you think of Transsion mobile phones? Welcome to leave your comments and opinions in the comment area.
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