- Economic Times report says that the layoffs are a aftermath of lowered smartphone and smart TV prices
- Samsung has around 20,000 employees in India
Amidst rising competition in the smartphones and smart TVs vertical, Korea based Samsung is rumored to slash its workforce by a 1000 employees in India. India’s leading daily Economic Times reported that several top company officials have already submitted lists of employees who have not been achieving their targets here.
Interestingly, the Korea based consumer electronics company had rewarded several of its global team with trips to Korea and lunches with Samsung supremo earlier this year. These Galaxy teams were awarded in lieu of their performance in their respective markets. However, it now seems that things have gone south for the company in India.
It is to be noted here that several reports by IDC and Counterpoint Research have pointed towards Xiaomi is the new market leader in smartphone space in India. Moreover, MI has also started retailing smart TVs in the country. BBK, which operates Oppo, Reno, Vivo, Iqoo, Realme, and Oneplus smartphone brands in India, is also giving tough competition to Samsung here. Several reports have also pointed towards the possible launch of Oneplus smart TVs in India this fiscal.
The new PR agency?
Samsung had quietly changed its PR Agency in India this year. The company had switched to AvianWe as its PR agency in March 2019. Before the change, it was Adfactors PR that was handling Samsung’s PR in the country.
He said, “Samsung is changing its smartphone portfolio, they are going online and in offline channel they are launching rather competitive models take on China based vendors. This could be one reason to change its PR agency to think fresh and new.”
Too late in joining the online game?
Samsung, despite is full-fledged presence in the offline channel in the country, may have been too late to join the online game. Players including the likes of Xiaomi and Realme, on the other hand, started at online heavy brands, managed to create brand images for their products, and are now aggressively expanding in the offline space.
Samsung, this year had also announced the appointment of new heads who are solely taking care of online business for the company. It seems as if the coming quarters will paint a clearer picture about Samsung and its competitors in the country.
