Vivo India ends its partnership with Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo India has said that it has ended its partnership with Ranveer Singh who has been endorsing the company for almost two years.

"Ranveer Singh and Vivo India have had an exciting and productive association for the past two years. The relationship aided Vivo India in generating mass brand awareness that has set our products apart from the competition in the Indian smartphone market," Vivo said in a statement.

"The brand has evolved significantly since its launch in India and has aggressive consolidation plans that will boost future growth. Vivo India is thankful to Ranveer for being an invaluable and integral part of the Vivo India Journey so far, " the statement said.

However, the company did not divulge the reason behind ending partnership buy according to some media report Vivo is talking to Aamir Khan for endorsing its brand.

Meanwhile, a new report by research firm IDC said that Vivo rose to the 3rd position after dropping to 4th in the last quarter.
However, its shipments saw a 41 percent decline from the previous quarter and remained flattish on YoY basis. To extend its omnichannel experience, Vivo launched its maiden experience center in India and also participated in Amazon and Flipkart's winter sales this quarter.

The report said that China-based vendors further strengthened their positions in the smartphone category with the collective share of China-based vendors reaching 53 percent in 2017 from 34 percent a year ago.

The untapped demand in the lower-tier cities remains the key attraction for China-based brands to explore the growth trajectory in India. Their strength in their home market of China and weakening position of local players has helped some of these China-based players to solidify their operations in India," says Jaipal Singh, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

The report further pointed out that India is the world's third-largest smartphone market, and also continues to hold its position of being the biggest feature phone market globally. 2017 has been an exceptional year for this category as it witnessed a 17 percent annual growth after declining for three consecutive years. While feature phones remain relevant to a large consumer base in India, the Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio shipped huge shipments of 4G enabled feature phones taking the leadership position on its maiden quarter in this category.This resulted in a total of 164 million feature phone shipments in 2017 from 140 million a year ago. In 2017Q4, vendors shipped a total of 56 million units in the 2017Q4 making it the highest-ever shipments in a single quarter. The category registered a huge 67 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth and 33 percent growth from the previous quarter.