Chinese handset maker Oppo has announced plans to overtake long-time leader Samsung as Thailand's biggest vendor of mobile phones by 2020.
The company set its largest-ever budget of 1.5 billion baht this year to double the number of distribution channels and ramp up marketing to increase brand awareness.
"We see a major opportunity to snatch the market share from our bigger rivals, Samsung and Apple's iPhone," said Leo Zhao, sales director of Thai Oppo Co, the local arm of the Chinese handset maker.
"We believe Thailand's smartphone market will have only three well-known handset brands in the near future," he said.
Oppo has a 10% share of the Thai smartphone market, ranking third. No.1 Samsung and No.2 Apple have 40% and 20%, respectively.
Thailand's smartphone market has achieved stable and continuous growth of 2-3% a year.
Mr Zhao said Oppo will spend at least 1.5 billion baht to increase its distribution channel capacity and marketing activities in a bid to boost its market share from 10% last year to 18% this year.
About 800 million baht will go for marketing activities including appointing a brand ambassador to raise its brand image.
The remaining 700 million baht will go to more than double the number of its retail outlets from 5,000 in 2015 to 11,000 by the year-end.
The company will also double the number of employees to 4,000 this year.
"We expect to sell between 100,000 and 130,000 phones per month this year," said Mr Zhao, adding that up to 70% of Oppo's sales revenue came from provinces with Bangkok accounting for the remaining 30%.
"We aim to overtake Samsung in the Thai market within the next five years," he said, acknowledging that it's an uphill task given its strong market share here.
However, Mr Zhao said Oppo has already overtaken Samsung's top spot in China's handset market as Samsung's share shrunk from 35% to 7% within five years. Oppo now has a 23% market share in China.
Oppo will continue focusing on the mid-range segment priced around 10,000 baht a unit. This segment accounts for 26% of Thailand's smartphone market.
Oppo yesterday launched the Oppo F1s in the Thai market. The phone features a 16-megapixel camera and is priced below 10,000 baht.
Mr Zhao said Oppo's sales in Thailand in the first half of this year saw an increase of 70%, compared with 156% in Indonesia and 82% in India.