China may have been not much interested in Cricket but a mobile brand Vivo stabled there is playing the game in India. It had spent about $315 million to get into the title sponsorship of Indian Premier League from 2018 to 2022 and the volume is six times more than the previous contract.
The IPL is still ongoing and by now it is clear that the eye-popping amount is paying off. The brand posted best ever performance in India in the first quarter of 2019 and claims to have shipped more than 4.5 million units of handsets.
However, in the three months period from January to March another Chinese brand Xiaomi is the market leader in India followed by Samsung.
The brigt side of Vivo in these three months is that it has sold more than double compared to first quarter of 2018. The annual growth of it between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019 was 108.2 percent.
The segment in which Vivo played the leading role in branding in the first quarter of 2019 was Rs7,000-Rs14,000, the mid-tier.
Vivo’s visibility in India is learned to have been amplified with the #VivoIPL hashtag. In this season of IPL it became the buzziest brand.
Vivo’s market share in India is 15 percent. Last year it was 7.3 percent.
It is to see what happens after the IPL season ends. Vivo could face intense battle as Oppo is sponsoring Cricket World Cup.
