OnePlus sees India emerging as its largest market by next year

Bengaluru: Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus sees India emerging as its largest market next year, surpassing China, the company's founder and CEO Pete Lau told TOI . He said the company will invest in India more than anywhere else in the world.

"In 2017, we expect India to surpass China as our biggest market. It is not easy to capture all the markets at the same time. China is a big market but we would like to focus on one market and capture that country and create a strong platform for us to grow in other countries later on," Lau said.

Towards this, it will soon finalize the location for a manufacturing plant in India and also launch a brick-and-mortar experience centre in Bengaluru, the first such for the company that sells only online.

OnePlus has undertaken a pilot manufacturing project at SriCity in Andhra Pradesh. Once that is successful, it will move to a bigger location. "The Indian market is big enough for us to make in India and the government is supportive of local manufacturing," Lau added. "We can react to our customers fast by producing locally." The costs are expected to go down next year when the locally manufactured products start reaching the consumer, Lau said.

OnePlus makes premium phones and was sold only through invites initially.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.