OnePlus to shut Philippines operations as focus shifts to India

Chinese manufacturer OnePlus recently became the top brand in the premium smartphone category in India, overtaking the likes of Samsung and Apple that have long dominated this space in the Asian country.

So it shouldn’t be surprising if the company is focusing more than ever on India. Yes, that’s what’s happening, as the firm has decided to make India its global services base. And in the process, the company is also winding up its operations in some other regions including the Philippines.

Here’s what OnePlus India General Manager Vikas Agarwal said:

India is the biggest market for us not just in terms of current sales but also from a potential opportunity perspective. We already have more than 40 per cent share of the premium smartphone market here. Going forward, India will become a service hub for the global market

With this, India will become the second headquarters for OnePlus. So what does this mean for OnePlus India? Well, the employee count at the subsidiary will nearly double (taking the total to over 160), and there will also be country-specific corporate structure in place.

So far India has always been a small regional office, a primarily sales and branding office. We didn’t even have regular corporate functions like administration, human resources, finance, and product testing. All this was centrally managed by our headquarters in China. But if you want to grow fast, you need to have a local corporate structure to support the growth

Currently, India – where OnePlus is growing 400% year-on-year – is the only market where the company is making offline marketing investments, and moving forward, the region will also get a full stock of devices, the executive said.

This means no more shortage of stock in peak or festival seasons.

OnePlus had recently confirmed its plans to setup an R&D center in India, which would be the company’s first outside of China. Agarwal re-confirmed this, saying they are currently in look out for a space.

The centre will most likely be in a tech city in the South. We are looking at Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad as possible options

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