Flipkart Signs Exclusive Partnership With ASUS To Bring India Focussed Products

Propelling its leadership in smartphone segment, homegrown ecommerce major Flipkart has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for an exclusive partnership with Taiwanese smartphone maker ASUS.

Under the partnership, Flipkart will be the primary sales channel for ASUS ZenFones and both the companies will collaborate in the co-creation of new products for the Indian market based on consumer insights.

On the marketing front, both companies will extensively support each other in the planning and execution of marketing activities for ASUS ZenFones.

Commenting on the partnership, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart, said, “Flipkart has driven the adoption of smartphones in India, and grown the market, through innovations and a deep sense of knowing what consumers want. With this partnership with Asus, we’re multiplying those efforts by collaborating to leverage our individual strengths — data-driven research & insights, and technological prowess — to build smartphones truly customised for India.”

While reaffirming its commitment to the Indian market, ASUS also announced support for digitising India and aiding the digital education of the needy in Indian society through its CSR initiatives.

On the partnership, Jerry Shen, CEO, ASUS, said, “As a core pillar of our consumer-centric strategy in India, we see tremendous opportunity in creating products and services that address India’s special market needs. With Flipkart’s partnership, we aim to gain more insights about Indian consumers’ needs which can help us develop even more suitable products for the Indian market.”

With this partnership, ASUS will launch its ZenFone Max Pro, powered by Snapdragon 636 on April 23 on Flipkart.

Flipkart Targets 40% Smartphone Market By 2020

Addressing the media, Ajay Veer Yadav, senior vice-president (mobiles), Flipkart, revealed that Flipkart has recorded 60% Y-o-Y growth in the smartphone retailing segment last year. With this, he claimed, one out of four smartphone sold in India, is sold through Flipkart.

For the segment growth, the company aims to focus on: local innovations to add offline customers, right customer base and long-term brand partnership.

He also shared that Flipkart aims to touch 330 Mn smartphone user base by 2020 and gain 40% of the market share by then.

To add more perspective, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart revealed that Mobile and fashion contribute to half of etail market growth. By FY21, Indian ecommerce unicorn expects the market to reach $50-60 Bn, where 55% would come from Mobiles and fashion.

Under its brand Billion, where the products are designed, engineered, manufactured and tested in India, Flipkart launched the Billion Capture+ smartphone in November 2017. The company claimed to have sold out the phone within 24 hours of its launch. In September 2017, during  Flipkart’s Big Billion Days, the company sold 1.3 Mn smartphones within the first 20 hours of the category opening for sale.

As per an August 2017 report, it is expected that by 2020, 96% of the mobile phones sold in India will be Made in India and the Indian Smartphone manufacturing industry would be worth $18.4 Bn (INR 1,20,200 Cr).

According to the report published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Kantar IMRB, titled ‘Internet in India 2017’, the number of Internet users in India is expected to reach 500 Mn by June 2018. With India coming online, Flipkart has opened the huge market with its exclusive partnership with ASUS.