Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, New Delhi, London, Buenos Aires, San Diego - September 8, 2021

China’s smartphone internet retail sales by units had a 31% share of the total market shipments in H1 2021, according to the latest Counterpoint Research data. For the full year, we estimate that the internet retail sales in 2021 will be slightly lower than 2020, while the revenue will increase. “From Q4 2020 to H1 2021, 5G-enabled smartphones flooded the market, including the Apple iPhone 12 series. But most of the target 5G users had already changed their phones. With the smartphone replacement cycle in China being 26-30 months, the market entered a near-saturation situation,” said Senior Research Analyst Ivan Lam.

Source: Counterpoint Research Report "China E-commerce Channel Smartphone Market Analysis, H1 2021"

China’s e-commerce marketplace is moving into a new era. Livestream sales have made rapid gains since H2 2020 in terms of viewership and continue to be very important to smartphone OEMs in 2021. Several CEOs have appeared in these live broadcasts to promote their smartphones and other products. Nowadays, a smartphone OEM in China needs to possess a trendy and comprehensive e-commerce channel strategy. Different types of online platforms have different target audiences. A customized product and pricing strategy is needed to push sales on these platforms.

China E-commerce Brand Matrix

Research Analyst Mengmeng Zhang said, “We estimate that the smartphone market in H2 2021 will still have higher sales than H1 2021 before moving to a flat or tiny uptrend in 2022. This means huge pressure on the leading smartphone OEMs to get their strategy right to retain or increase their share. With the right plan for internet retail, OEMs can yield twice the result with less effort.”

You can access Counterpoint Research’s latest report ‘China E-commerce Channel Smartphone Market Analysis, H1 2021’ here.

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Feel free to contact us at press(at)counterpointresearch.com for questions regarding our in-depth research and insights.

You can also visit our Data Section (updated quarterly) to view the smartphone market share for World, USA, China and India.

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in products in the TMT (technology, media and telecom) industry. It services major technology and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analyses of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are seasoned experts in the high-tech industry.

Analyst Contacts: 

Ivan Lam

Mengmeng Zhang

Counterpoint Research
press(at)counterpointresearch.com