LeEco expects to close 2016 with turnover of ₹1,500 crore

Chinese Internet and technology firm LeEco has successfully completed a year in India and is expected to close the year with a turnover of ₹1,500 crore by selling televisions, smartphones and accessories.

The company had announced plans to enter the Indian market in December last year and launched its first product — smartphone Le1 — in January this year.

“We have been in the India market for almost a year now and we are overjoyed to share that all our products have received such customer validation. The combined sales turnover from phones, TV and accessories, that we will close the calendar year with is ₹1500 crore,” Atul Jain, Chief Operating Officer (Smart Electronics Business), LeEco India, told BusinessLine .

He said the company breached the ₹200-crore mark with a total sale of 2 lakh Superphones, 1,800 SuperTVs and 500+ accessories across all four platforms, at its first-ever participation in the pre-Diwali sales by e-commerce platforms such as LeMall (it’s own portal), Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal.

Asked about next year’s and plans, Jain said: “For the year 2017-18, we will continue to bring in technologically-advanced and true value devices. We are planning to launch the next-generation SuperTVs in the coming two months and next-generation Superphone in the first quarter of 2017.”

As part of LeEco’s online to offline strategy, the company will be launching its own branded stores across the country and these stores will showcase some of LeEco’s next-generation product innovations and its connect with the end-user community in India.

“We’re looking at having around 500 such stores by the end of year 2017, covering major cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and smaller towns and cities,” he said.

On asked about the update from the Centre on local sourcing norms, Jain said that LeEco had written a letter to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in September, withdrawing the company’s request for exemption stating that it will source the required 30 per cent locally.

“Based on this letter, DIPP may have cleared our application and sent the file to FIPB for its approval. However, the fact that the application has been cleared by DIPP and other departments has not been communicated to LeEco officially,” he said.

He further said the company will continue to invest and introduce technologically advanced products in India. The company has also set up local R&D centre in Bengaluru for an India-centric consumer products line-up, Jain added.

Many analysts feel the company may get some funds from its headquarters as LeEco has recently secured a $600 million of funding from major Chinese institutional investors.

Meanwhile, according to analysts tracking the industry, LeEco as a new entrant is the only brand that had made it to top 10 (number seven in rank) in the smartphone segment in the first half of this year.

The company is expected to garner a better share of the market in the ₹10,000-20,000 bracket, they said.

As per a CyberMedia Research recent report, the Indian handsets market is expected to clock imports of 265 million devices by the year end, of which 116 million would be smartphones.

The report said, out of the total handsets shipped to India in the third quarter (78.4 million), 66 per cent of the phones were made in India and a total of 137 brands shipped mobile phones, of which 69 shipped smartphones. And, 83 per cent of the 4G smartphones shipped supported VoLTE.

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