Chinese giant OPPO plans massive investment in India

India is an increasingly contested battleground for the world’s top smartphone makers. Among them, Chinese companies like Lenovo, Xiaomi and OnePlus have strong presences in the country, which recently beat the US to become the second largest telecom market in the world.

Now OPPO, the Chinese company that quietly worked its way into the top 5 of global smartphone vendors, announced massive investments into a new industrial park in Noida.

OPPO already had production facilities in Noida, but the new investment will greatly increase its capacity in India. The industrial park, which will cover an area of 1,000 acres, will entail total investments of around Rs. 1,465 crores or $216 million.

Oppo’s goals for its Indian manufacturing arm are ambitious. Sky Li, President of OPPO India, said that production capacity could eventually hit 100 million units per year, though the initial target is 50 million.

Oppo’s Noida industrial park is projected to begin operations with three years.

Li said that OPPO will continue to focus on upper and mid-range products in the Indian market. “We are creating a trend for the industry and many are following our footsteps on the selfie functionality. Our positioning (in the market) is correct and precise, and that is giving credit to our market research,” Li said.

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Oppo’s venture is the latest in a string of investments made by global mobile companies including Huawei, OnePlus, Asus, and LG. Not everyone is able to keep up though – Acer just announced it would withdraw from India, effectively abandoning one of the world’s most important markets.

By 2020, the Indian mobile user base is expected to balloon to one billion subscribers, up from 616 million users in 2016.