Smartphone shipment share by vendor in China 2013-2024

As of 2024, Vivo accounted for the highest market share of the Chinese smartphone market at

percent. In that year, After a three-year absence, Huawei has returned to the top-tier smartphone market after the release of several popular models. 

The rise of Huawei

Back in 2014, the smartphone market in China was decentralized, with various domestic brands and major international brands like Samsung and Apple all accounting for only around one tenth of the market. During the last few years, the market became more concentrated with three domestic brands, namely Huawei, Vivo, and Oppo. The latter two belong to the same consumer electronic technology company BKK, while Huawei claimed to be a privately owned independent corporation. The three brands have dominated the Chinese smartphone market with a total market share of over percent since 2018. Among the three, Huawei made a huge jump in market share from 2017 to 2019, almost doubling its market share from percent to percent. However, over the course of the trade disputes between China and the United States, the company was affected by sanctions which impacted its smartphone division. 

Chinese smartphone market

  As the largest smartphone market in the world, the volume of smartphone shipments in China has been steadily increasing since 2011, with shipments once peaking over million units in 2016. However, the figure started dropping in 2017 and even fell below million units in 2018, parallel to the economic downturn worldwide and demonstrating the slowing down of the Chinese economic growth. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak in the beginning of 2020, the smartphone shipment in China was estimated to have dipped in the first two quarters but would begin to recover again in the rest of the year.