#3: Transsion (Tecno, Infinix & Itel) - From Shenzhen China to dethroning Samsung & Huawei to become Africa's top phone seller

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Transsion - The Chinese phone manufacturer that has sold the most phones in Africa since 2017. We’ll discuss its early history, entry & success into Africa, progress in other developing markets, eventual 2019 IPO & Transsion's future outlook

 

Companies discussed: Transsion (Tecno, Infinix and Itel), PalmPay & Jumia

 

Business concepts discussed: Customer segmentation, product localization & revenue diversification (hardware vs services businesses)

 

Conversation highlights:

• (00:33) - Transsion: Founding and early history
• (03:20) - Entry into Africa and design changes for the African market
• (11:10) - Transsion’s focus on hardware and building services (Payments and Music)
• (11:30) - Transsion’s Boomplay Music service
• (17:30) - Transsion’s hardware business
• (18:30) - IPO
• (24:06) - Transsion Post-IPO performance 
• (27:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
• (39:35) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

 

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

• Recommendation: Blitzfail: How Not to Go off the Rails (by David Sacks) 
• Recommendation: The Deep Reset (by Cal Newport)
• Recommendation: Location & Work (by Fred Wilson) 
• Recommendation: Poor Charlie’s Almanac (by Charlie Munger)

 

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

• Recommendation: A Man for all Markets (by Ed Thorp)

 

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