According to the M. Video -Eldorado retail group, Chinese smartphone sales increased by 42% in terms of sales volume and accounted for 70% of the market share in Russia. The two leading positions belong to Xiaomi and Realme.
Russian consumers bought more than 6.5 million devices in the first quarter of this year, not much different from a year ago. However, the average purchase price fell 23% to around 22,000 rubles ($260).
Samsung and Apple, which ranked first and third respectively last year, slipped to third and fourth place in the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, Tecno – another Chinese brand – ranked fifth and saw the biggest increase among the top five.
After Samsung and Apple withdrew from Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Chinese smartphone makers stepped up their push into the market. Their combined market share in Russia was 57% in March 2022, but fell to 34% a month later, according to research firm Counterpoint.
However, customers will still be able to buy iPhones and Galaxys after Moscow legalized parallel imports, which means shipments through unofficial channels. Major Russian retailers including M. Video will start selling Apple and Samsung phones imported from Kazakhstan in May 2022.
Russia has been hit by sanctions from many Western countries and boycotted by many global companies. But China has pledged to continue trading with Russia. In 2022, trade between the two countries increased by 34.3% to a record high of 1.28 trillion yuan ($189.5 billion). But Chinese companies have also come under increasing scrutiny for doing business in Russia. Last week, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency put Xiaomi, its CEO Lei Jun, and more than a dozen other companies on a “war finance” list.
Xiaomi denies this. The company insists it complies with the laws and regulations in every country it operates in and only supplies its products for civilian and commercial use.
(According to SCMP)
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