Chinese car brands such as Haval, Chery, BYD, Omoda and Jaecoo are making massive inroads in South Africa’s new vehicle market, challenging traditional incumbents as they wrestle for market share.
A similar shift may now be happening in the mobile market, where Chinese challenger brands are giving mainstays such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and the US’s Apple a run for their money.
Vivo, China’s leading phone manufacturer in 2024 with a 17% domestic market share, is one of the challengers vying for a greater share of South Africa’s mobile market. Speaking at a media event on Tuesday, Vivo South Africa GM Tony Shi said China’s integrated manufacturing capacity is one of the main drivers fuelling the competitiveness of its brands in both the vehicle and mobile markets.
“The technological development in China is happening much quicker than other parts of the world, even the US. Our manufacturing and labour costs are also much lower. Also, our supply chains are integrated – our suppliers are local – making the assembly costs also much lower,” Shi said in a post-event interview with TechCentral.
“We have worked on the camera, chipset and other components to make them better and then deliver them at a lower cost to the consumer.”
Like the new vehicle market, Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Vivo, Honor and Oppo tend to offer devices with higher specifications compared to offerings by non-Chinese competitors in the same segment. This is one of the features that have made Vivo a market leader in China.
But homeland success is not always reflected in international markets. Vivo is only the fourth-largest smartphone brand globally by sales and claims to hold the same position in South Africa, too.
Conservative consumers
Part of this discrepancy is attributable to first-mover advantages accrued by brands like Huawei Technologies that began launching phones in the South African market in the early 2010s, compared to Vivo’s more recent 2020 entry into the local market.
Samsung has been operating locally for 31 years and remains the top-selling smartphone brand. Another Chinese brand, Honor, is seen by Vivo as its other main competitor because, like Samsung, it has “strong offerings in every market segment”.
Consumer dynamics are another factor shaping market composition. According to Shi, South African consumers tend to be conservative, often choosing to remain loyal to brands that are already well-established and familiar to them. Chinese consumers, on the other hand, have a different approach.
Read: The most expensive smartphones in South Africa in 2025
“The younger generation in China wants to try new things. For example, in China we have lots of different electric vehicles – more than 10 new brands – and the youngsters try them. I think having a lot more options makes Chinese people want to try new things, whereas here the consumer sees it as more of a risk,” said Shi.
Contributing to this are longstanding perceptions of Chinese goods and poor quality.
“Chinese smartphone manufacturers have definitely become more competitive in recent years. They invested heavily in research and development and marketing to shake off the ‘cheap but low-quality’ label. Huawei is a standout example. I saw first-hand during my 10 years [working for a major Chinese smartphone vendor] how deliberate the push was to elevate product quality and brand perception globally. Established brands tend to get a bit comfortable with their market position and as a result innovation stagnates,” said Akhram Mohamed, former tech industry executive turned editor at Geekhub.
Cultural and psychological factors aside, there are economic drivers fuelling the conservative approach taken by South African consumers. Vivo’s Shi blames this on the decades-long stagnation of the South African economy, which has restricted household disposable incomes.
“If companies make more profit, they can pay their employees more, then people can decide they want to own two phones or buy devices for their children and extended family, then brands like ours will grow,” said Shi.
Even so, Vivo has made progress in the South African market, especially at the top end with the XP200 Pro 5G flagship, which costs around R40 000. Shi described the device’s local success as surprising, attributing it to superior camera quality, which South African consumers are attracted to.
Despite having devices ranging through all market segments from the entry level to the ultra-high end, Vivo is seeing more success “from the mid-market going up”. Its mid-market offering, the V60 Lite will launch locally in the coming month, with the high-end X300 range expected in February 2026. Another Chinese brand, Tecno, features more prominently in South Africa’s entry level segment.
Shi said Vivo’s performance in the local market, although encouraging, does not match the competitiveness of the brand’s offering, asserting that the company could do better given a more aggressive marketing and consumer education campaign.
Read: Chinese cars in South Africa: threat or opportunity?
“Our target this year is to get 10% market share in the post-paid segment and third place in the Android usage rankings (Samsung is first) on the post-paid side. We are still a challenger brand in this market and we need to work with our partners to increase our brand visibility. Consumers who have not used our phones don’t know how good they are,” said Shi. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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