Smartphone firm rockets into the US
Updated: 2013-10-15 00:03
By Shen Jingting (China Daily)
|
|||||||||
ZTE is launching a charm offensive in a tough market, in a major bid to promote its brand among American consumers, reports Shen Jingting from Houston
Few Chinese companies have managed so far to gain a footprint in the huge and profitable United States market. But more Chinese firms are trying to establish a presence there, especially smartphone makers such as ZTE Corp.
On Oct 5, in the Toyota Center, in downtown Houston, Texas, Cheng Lixin, the chairman and chief executive officer of ZTE USA Inc, looked a little bit nervous. A big fan of the NBA, Cheng was about to watch a preseason game featuring the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans.
Cheng tried to keep calm by taking deep breaths. However, it was not only the game that was making him nervous. There was something much more important at stake. That night, he would make an important announcement to the thousands of people present at the venue and to many more outside the Toyota Center.
For the first time ever, ZTE was taking a bold move to market itself in the US market by using an NBA team's appeal. In the past several months, Cheng and his team had held frequent meetings with the management of the Houston Rockets to forge an alliance to boost ZTE's profile in the US smartphone market.
"This is the biggest overseas investment ZTE has made so far," Cheng told China Daily in an interview before that preseason game.
And the timing could not be better, since the Rockets' newly added Dwight Howard is playing this season together with James Harden, Jeremy Lin and others, making for a formidable team.
Many reasons made ZTE choose the Houston Rockets, Cheng said. Among them is the fact that Houston is one of the five biggest markets for ZTE in the US. The city can help ZTE conquer the country's smartphone market, which is now dominated by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.
"The Houston Rockets boast 350 million fans worldwide, and the team's popularity can also lift ZTE's branding in the United States," Cheng said.
That positive influence may even stretch to China, as well as to many markets in emerging countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where a large percentage of young people are Rockets fans.
- New Yorkers celebrates Columbus Day
- Storm swamps car insurance firms
- Smartphone firm rockets into the US
- 3 US economists share 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics
- Canton Fair to promote yuan use
- Vintage cars gather in downtown Beijing
- Senate leads hunt for shutdown and debt deal
- Chinese education for Thai students
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
Riding the wave of big bargain buy-ups |
Last of the reindeer hunters |
Time to reduce dollar's hold |
Facial Expressions |
Rallying to the rescue of fishermen |
Writers chase dreams online |
Today's Top News
Conference salutes China-US ties progress
The itch that Kobe just can't scratch
Cosmetics is a mirror to China's economy
Chinese may have discovered the future of batteries
4 dead, power cut as M7.2 quake rocks Philippines
Row over NASA's ban should be wake-up call
Baidu 'worry ranking' exposes netizen anxieties
UK 'open' to Chinese nuclear investment
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |