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Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has planned to significantly expand its footprint in the Indian market by opening a global headquarters in Bengaluru. The information was shared by the company’s CEO Pete Lau with Forbes India where he expressed the possibility of a second headquarters in India, considering its importance for the company. A third of OnePlus’ total revenue of $1.4 billion comes from India where the Chinese company is one of the largest smartphone vendors in the premium segment. OnePlus claims to have captured a 28-percent market share in the segment while recording a growth of 116 percent during the last quarter that ended in March. Besides a new headquarter, the company is also looking to expand its manufacturing base and research and development (R&D) facilities in the country.
As part of the ‘Make in India’ program introduced by the government, OnePlus is planning to open a local facility to manufacture smartphone components. This move comes on the heels of a recent hike in the import duty on the components to promote local manufacturing of devices, and not just assembling. R&D will be another department that OnePlus will be focusing on to develop product and services catering to the needs of the local customers while also increasing the personnel in the department. Lau confirmed that all OnePlus smartphones currently retailing in India are assembled in the country itself by contract manufacturers with no plans to undertake in-house manufacturing. At the OnePlus 6 launch in India earlier today, the Chinese smartphone maker also announced to up the number of exclusive retail stores and service centers in India showing its commitment to the country.
India has managed to attract quite a lot of Chinese smartphone makers in the past few years with many of them even taking the top market positions. OnePlus’ story is no different as it has gradually become one of the top-selling smartphone makers in the premium segment, despite launching just a couple of smartphones in a year. A major portion of this success is accredited to Amazon India that has been OnePlus’ exclusive retail partner since the day it entered the Indian market back in 2014 with the OnePlus One. The 2018 flagship OnePlus 6 was introduced to the world just yesterday in London before being announced in Indian earlier today again as an Amazon exclusive.