导读:作为中国最大的智能手机制造商之一，传音（Transsion）从未在中国国内卖出过一部手机。然而，在万里之外的非洲，它却是市场的“王者”。在这片人口超过10亿的大陆上，来自中国的传音远远超越了苹果和三星这样的全球品牌。

One of China’s biggest smartphone makers has never sold a handset in the country. Yet thousands of miles away, it dominates markets across Africa. Unknown in the West, Transsion has left global players like Samsung and Apple trailing in its wake in a continent that’s home to more than a billion people.

作为中国最大的智能手机制造商之一，传音（Transsion）从未在中国国内卖出过一部手机。然而，在万里之外的非洲，它却是市场的“王者”。在这片人口超过10亿的大陆上，来自中国的传音远远超越了苹果和三星这样的全球品牌。

In cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, busy streets are awash with the bright blue shopfronts of Transsion’s flagship brand, Tecno. In China, the company doesn’t have a single store, and its towering headquarters in the southern megacity of Shenzhen goes largely unnoticed among skyscrapers bearing the names of more famous Chinese tech firms.

在尼日利亚最大港口城市拉各斯、肯尼亚首都内罗毕和埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴，繁华的街区上遍地都是传音旗舰品牌“Tecno”醒目的蓝色标志。然而在中国南方的大都市深圳，传音总部大楼也只是淹没在许多中国著名技术品牌的摩天大楼中间不起眼的一座。

The company took a different path to success from other top Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, which started out in China before eventually expanding overseas.

与华为、小米等其他中国顶级智能手机制造商不同，传音走上了一条不同的成功之路。

Transsion built its business in Africa. And it has no plans to come home.

传音在非洲建立起手机业务，它也没有回归中国的计划。

Less than a decade ago, Chinese phones were barely on the radar in Africa. In 2010, Nokia and Samsung (SSNLF) dominated sales across the continent. By the first half of this year, Nokia’s share of the market had collapsed and Samsung was selling only one in 10 phones. Transsion had come from nowhere to take more than 50% of the market, according to Canalys. For smartphones alone, it accounts for nearly a third of all sales in Africa, according to IDC.

不到10年前，在非洲几乎没有中国手机。根据Canalys公司的数据，2010年，诺基亚和三星占领着非洲市场。今年上半年，诺基亚的市场份额大跌，三星的占有率只有10%。传音现在成为了一匹黑马，占有了超过50%的非洲手机市场。国际数据公司称，在智能手机领域一项，传音公司的销量就占到了整个非洲的三分之一。

Apple (AAPL) has been complacent about African markets, Jia says, because it deemed the slim profit margins on low-cost phones not worth fighting for. Transsion, on the other hand, is happy to work with tight margins, he adds. Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment.

贾墨说，苹果一直对非洲市场不感兴趣，因为它认为低成本手机利润率微薄，不值得为之投入太多精力。然而，传音善于在利润率较低的情况下开展业务，他补充道。苹果没有回应置评请求。

Transsion’s rise reflects the wider role Chinese firms now play in providing the technology people across Africa use to communicate, including the high-speed internet networks on which smartphones rely. Despite security concerns in countries such as the United States and Australia about Huawei and ZTE, Jia expects demand for Chinese products to remain strong in Africa, where governments and consumers are so price sensitive.

传音的崛起表明，中国企业目前在非洲各地为人们提供交流技术方面发挥了广泛作用，包括智能手机所依赖的高速互联网网络。尽管美国和澳大利亚等国对华为和中兴通讯存在安全担忧，贾墨预计，非洲对中国产品的需求将保持强劲，因为非洲政府和消费者对价格非常敏感。

In its marketing, Transsion plays down its Chinese roots. "In Africa, we say that we are African," Chowdhury says, explaining why Tecno’s stores carry no Chinese characters or signs of being a Chinese brand. In the 2017-2018 Brand Africa 100 report, published by African Business magazine, Tecno ranked as the 7th most admired brand in Africa. That was up from 14th the previous year, but it still lagged Samsung (2nd) and Apple (5th). The iPhone is still considered a luxury product that many Africans aspire to own.

在营销方面，传音淡化了中国元素。“在非洲，我们说我们是非洲生产，”乔杜里说。他解释了为什么非洲的传音手机店里没有中文字符，也没有中国品牌的标志。在《非洲商业杂志》发布的2017-2018年非洲品牌100强报告中，传音排名第7。这一数字高于其去年的第14位，但仍落后于三星(第二名)和苹果(第五名)。苹果手机仍然是许多非洲人渴望拥有的奢侈品。

（来源：爱语吧）