Eye on Economy: India trying to copy China on smartphone boom, says China Daily

With a number of Chinese smartphones companies already doing brisk business in India, China's state-run Global Times said the mobile Internet market in India today is similar to that of China several years ago when Chinese technology giants experienced rapid business expansion.

"India is trying to copy China. It is possible that India's smartphone boom can create a huge new market for the emerging economy," the right-leaning China daily said in its "eye on economy" section.

According to research firm IDC, 25.8 million smartphones were shipped to India in October-December quarter of 2016. Of this, the share of China-based vendors stood at 46 per cent.

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"The Internet economy will change India, leading a consumption revolution. The smartphone boom can be seen as the prelude to that exciting moment," the influential daily said, adding, "driven by growth in data consumption, the Indian economy is likely to offer a hot investment opportunity for overseas Internet-based companies."

Tech analyst Canalys in its report had said recently that India has overtaken the United States to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world, trailing China with 40 million units in the third financial quarter.

India grew its mobile phone shipments by 23% from the previous year, the report said.

"India received just over 40 million smartphone shipments in Q3 2017, with mobile brands Xiaomi and Samsung accounting for nearly half of the total market," Canalys said.

China's Xiaomi, an electronics and software giant, is one of the biggest handset sellers in India. Another phone company, Vivo has blitzed the Indian market even sponsoring India's favourite cricket event the Indian Premier League(IPL).

"China could be used as a reference," the daily said, emphasising that the Internet economy had begun to change the waypeople live and shop in China with the rise of new forms of business such as WeChat and Alibaba.

"The mobile Internet market in India today is similar to that of China several years ago when Chinese technology giants experienced rapid business expansion," the newspaper said.

"Those companies may have a natural advantage in capturing market opportunities in India," it pointed out in the end.