Image: Visual China

BEIJING, January 10 (TMTPOST) — South Korean multinational giant Samsung Electronics has set up a dedicated team within the company to study the Chinese market and relevant marketing strategies, Chinese news outlet Cailianshe reported.

The new team will be spearheaded by top executives from the smartphone and home appliance business segments, responsible for studying marketing strategies in China. The team will be conducting research on business patterns in China and Chinese consumers' preferences to provide Samsung's smartphones, television and home appliances with more information to compete with local brands in China.

Samsung Electronics has built up a new team for business innovation in China, according to news reports last month. The team answers to Samsung Electronics' Co-Vice Chairman and Co-CEO Jong-Hee Han. It is reported that the new team is made of personnel from the human resource department and marketing teams, etc.

It is unclear whether the two teams mentioned above are in fact the same team. Samsung has not responded to the news report.

Samsung's brand influence has been declining in China in the past few years. In 2018 and 2019, Samsung Electronics' market share in China's smartphone market had fallen to less than 1%. The South Korean company also shut down its manufacturing plants in China.

Samsung used to be a top brand in the Chinese market. In 2013, Samsung enjoyed the biggest market share in China's smartphone market. The company also built factories in a number of Chinese cities, including Dongguan, Tianjin and Suzhou. However, the rise of local smartphone brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, vivo and Oppo later challenged Samsung's dominance in the market and gradually took away its market share with cost-effective products. Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 scandal eventually made the brand lose Chines consumers' trust and its sales had been going down since then.

The recent development suggests that Samsung has not given up the Chinese market.