ZTE goes online to sell more phones

ZTE Corp aims to sell more smartphones online this year as it targets young and Internet-era consumers, the world's No. 4 smartphone vendor by sales said yesterday.

ZTE and JD.com, which jointly launched a new smartphone in Seoul yesterday, expect to sell 3.5 billion yuan (US$562 million) worth of ZTE phones this year, including 5 million of the new Star One models to be sold online. ZTE aims to sell more than 60 million smartphones in total, up 50 percent year on year, said Adam Zeng, ZTE's executive vice president.

A growing number of netizens are buying phones priced between 1,000 and 2,000 yuan, opening opportunities for Chinese brands, said Lan Ye, executive vice president of JD.com, one of China's top e-commerce sites.

The cooperation with JD.com is expected to help ZTE launch more consumer-oriented products, according to both companies.

ZTE's new Star One, costing 1,399 yuan, features a 5-inch screen, voice control functions and rapid-response mobile payment. It supports five telecommunication standards including both Chinese and Western 4G standards.

Chinese companies will have to use brand as the key differentiator to drive sales and profits, according to Craig Yu, account director of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which tracked latest consumer trends.