By LIN Teng
Chinese phone maker Oppo started out in Indonesia in 2013, and now, ten years later, controls 20 percent of the market, more than Samsung.
The phone maker is SE Asia’s second-largest with 16 percent of the regional market. The new Find N2 Flip secured 65 percent of the (albeit tiny) Indonesian foldable market in Q2.
Big and getting bigger
Indonesia offers a lot to entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. Goldman Sachs tips Indonesia to become the world's fourth-largest economy by 2050.
The economy is the largest in ASEAN by some distance, and growing by 5 percent each year. Chinese investment has jumped from 12th in 2013 to second in 2022. Chinese companies' direct investment in the country topped with US$8.2 billion (59.79 billion yuan) last year, a year-on-year jump of 160 percent and a record high.
Chinese Premier LI Qiang visited the country in September and pledged more than 150 billion yuan in new Chinese investment. This follows a previous 325 billion yuan promised by President Xi Jinping in July.
Building with domestic expertise
The Indonesian market is geographically huge, about 5,00 kilometers from east to west, about the same as China. Oppo's success in China may be instructional for its archipelagic efforts.
One of the first Chinese phone brands to enter Indonesia, Oppo took a decade to rise to the top of the mobile phone market. The first step was to build a local supply chain.
In 2014, the company plowed 500 million yuan (US$90 million) into the plant to assemble components imported from China. A year later, Oppo had 20,000 employees.
Seen in all the best places
High-end shopping malls in Jakarta give great prominence to Chinese brands. Oppo has a three-story-high poster in one, displaying its latest foldable phones.
In Plaza Indonesia, home to Louis Vuitton and Chanel, Oppo also has a store often overwhelmed with shoppers trying out its latest products.
Watertight investment
Indonesia also has a unique demand for group photography. Oppo’s cameras are well-suited to this need. And Indonesians don’t much care about tech.
They want their phones to be a lot tougher, with better waterproofing.
