Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it plans to seek business opportunities in India, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone market, by tripling its workforce there within the next three years.
The company has been expanding its presence in China over the past decade and is gradually shifting its focus to India in pursuit of new growth.
MediaTek accounts for 70 percent of the handset chip market in India, where New Delhiis seeking to develop its home-grown mobile phone brands via the “Made in India” initiative.
“India has a huge growth potential,” MediaTek chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Taipei arranged by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, citing the firm’s strategy of growing with local brands in emerging markets.
Local brands have rapidly expanded their market share in India from 7 percent in 2007 to 56 percent in 2014, Tsai said.
EMPLOYMENT GROWTH
In the five-year period to 2019, smartphone sales in India are expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent to 341 million units, according to data provided by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
MediaTek plans to increase its headcount in India from 500 to 1,500, with most new hires being engineers in research and development, software and customer services, the company said.
MediaTek yesterday launched a talent training program in India to help its local partners enhance their phone designing capabilities. About 50 Indian engineers are to join the program in the next two-and-half-months, it said.
PHISON
NAND flash controller supplier Phison Electronics Corp (群聯) has also targeted India as its next growth source.
The company yesterday said it wants to set up a research and development center in India and is seeking partners to expand into the market there. It has two research and development centers, on in Taiwan and one in China.
Phison last quarter began shipping products to India’s two largest electronics manufacturers — Moser Baer India Ltd and Sahasra Electronics Pvt Ltd — after signing a memorandum of understanding with the firms in June.
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