Micromax Plans to Enter China's Smartphone Market Next Year

Indian domestic handset manufacturer Micromax has plans to enter the Chinese smartphone market next year, Co-Founder Vikas Jain confirmed.

Speaking at the Rise technology conference in Hong Kong, Jain also hinted that it may go public in two years which will help Micromax raise money for adding various services to its ecosystem. WSJ reports that Micromax's move to enter a new market may be because its dwindling market share in India, shrinking due to competition from Samsung and Chinese vendors.

Jain revealed that Micromax plans to become the world's fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in terms of units sold by 2020. "Micromax plans to raise money in the next two years from private investors or by going public," notes the report.

Micromax is looking to generate cash to basically fund its acquisitions of companies such as TranServ which helped company integrating the Udio wallet in the recently unveiled Yunicorn smartphone. Jain said, "The company can't do that without more cash coming in."

Apart from India, Micromax operates in Russia where it is the third smartphone vendor in the country. The expansion to Chinese smartphone market will offer the company opportunity to become one of the top smartphone five vendors worldwide.

For the Indian market, Micromax had told Gadgets 360 in March that they will be aggressive in their online smartphone strategy this year.

IDC (International Data Corporation) last month reported that shipments of Micromax saw a drop as the company struggled to push its inventories into the market. According to IDC, Micromax retained second spot in Q1 2016 with a 12.6 percent market share. The domestic maker however reported a 6.9 percent growth over the same period last year but the shipments were said to fell 17.9 percent sequentially for the second consecutive quarter.