China’s efforts to promote product consumption are ongoing. After targeting home appliances and electric vehicles in 2024, the Middle Kingdom is attacking symbolic electronic goods: smartphones, but also tablets, watches and other connected bracelets.
During a press conference held on January 3, 2025, the Secretary-General for National Development, Yuan Da, announced the extension of the policy of taking back old electronic products into these categories of equipment. This includes encouraging domestic consumption to better counter potential sanctions imposed by the United States on Chinese exports from 2025.
Although the details of the operation are yet to be revealed, the Chinese government is banking on the success of its subsidy system for home appliances. It didn’t take long for the results of the announcement to be felt: as reported. The Wall Street Journalshares of brands like Xiaomi saw their prices rise on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this Friday.
The first beneficiaries should indeed be the national brands, such as Vivo, Huawei and Xiaomi. If we focus on the latest statistics, covering the third quarter of 2024, Apple occupies the second place in the Chinese telephone market, with 15.6% market share after Vivo (18.6%) and ahead of Huawei. (15.3%), Xiaomi (14.8%) and Honor (14.6%). Many brands that today experience less frequent smartphone renewals (every two-and-a-half to three years on average) could benefit from the government initiative, as well as sales platforms such as Alibaba and JD.
