OnePlus did not plan India launch initially, says company co-founder Carl Pei

BENGALURU: Chinese phone maker OnePlus has joined the race to expand the ever-growing Indian smartphone user base, hedging its bets on what has become its largest market within months of its launch here.

Founded in December 2013, One-Plus sold over a million devices in 2014, and started operations in India a year later. Since then, it has sold over 200,000 devices here, which made up 35-40% of OnePlus' sales in the first quarter.

"We didn't plan to launch in India. But when we launched in other developed markets, we saw that thousands of our devices were being shipped from China and the US to India. And when we had a fan gathering last August, around 70% of the attendees were already our users," said Carl Pei, 25, OnePlus' co-founder and Head of Global, who will be dedicating a few months to India this year.

"We don't think sales is ever a number we should chase after, but if we have to put a number, it would be at least a million (devices) this year in India."

OnePlus differs from other phone makers in that it is focused on selling phones on low margins, monetizing instead on software and services and applications. Accordingly, the company is currently focused on scaling up a global user base to touch at least 10 million, focusing on higher-end users who would pay for software.

The company, which sells phones in the Rs 20,000 range, broke even last September, although Pei thinks that the company will incur losses again when it starts ramping up this year.

It has not been smooth sailing for the young team, already 850-strong worldwide. When the company first launched in India, they were slammed with a sales injunction by Micromax since both companies had signed an exclusivity contract with operating system provider Cyanogen. After two delays, the domestic player withdrew its case last week.

"It was pretty interesting having the biggest domestic player trying to stop you," said Pei.

OnePlus has tied up exclusively with Amazon India to sell its products here, although it will consider expanding into other channels when they reach greater scale. The Bengaluru-based India team is currently less than 10 people, which will grow to around 30 by the end of the year, he wants to hire a "more global team" here, said Pei, adding that there are plans to base research and development in India in the future.

OnePlus' will be launching another phone next, in the third quarter this year, after abandoning the launch of a fitness band at the last minute. "We need to be very focused on the main point of contact between the user and the internet, and today it's the smartphone," said Pei.