Although Samsung posted record profits last year, it faced challenges in many key markets around the world, especially in China, where domestic smartphone makers tend to have a strong and dominant position.
Samsung is on the decline in the Chinese smartphone market, with its share falling rapidly over two years. In 2015, it had a market share of 20% in the Chinese market, but in the third quarter of 2017 it was only 2%. Although this was a slight increase, as in the third quarter of 2016, Samsung had a market share of only 1,6% in the Chinese market.
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However, the situation appears to have worsened considerably, with its share falling to just 0,8% in the final quarter of last year, according to data compiled by Strategy Analytics. The top five strongest companies on the Chinese market are Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple, while Samsung found itself in 12th place. Although the South Korean giant was the largest smartphone vendor globally in 2017, it failed to establish a leading position in the Chinese smartphone market.
Samsung admitted that it is not doing very well in China, but promised to do better. In fact, at the company's recent annual meeting held in March, the head of the mobile division, DJ Koh, apologized to shareholders for its declining Chinese market share. He pointed out that Samsung is trying to deploy various methods in China, the results of which should be seen soon.
Samsung is also struggling in the Indian market, where it faced strong competition from Chinese smartphones last year. Samsung has been the undisputed market leader in India for many years, but that changed in the last two quarters of 2017.
Source: The Investor
