India on Thursday approved a manufacturing joint venture between China’s Vivo and local manufacturer Dixon Technologies, a move that could mark the next phase of the country’s smartphone manufacturing boom after Apple helped turn India into a global smartphone production hub.
The approval allows Vivo to continue a long-delayed manufacturing partnership. announced for the first time in December 2024, after New Delhi cleared the investment under investment rules introduced in 2020 that require additional government scrutiny of investments from countries that share a land border with India, a category that includes China. The joint venture will acquire certain Vivo manufacturing assets, manufacture part of the company’s smartphone orders in India and may also produce electronics for other brands, according to a stock market presentation by Noida-based Dixon.
The 51/49 venture, majority owned by Dixon and Vivo with the remaining stake, reflects a broader shift in the way Chinese smartphone brands are expanding manufacturing in India through local partnerships. For an industry watching how governments arbitrate the relationship between Chinese capital and domestic manufacturing, analysts believe the structure could become a model for similar deals across the industry, helping to expand India’s smartphone manufacturing story beyond Apple.
In recent years, India has become a major global smartphone manufacturing hub like Apple and its suppliers expanded iPhone production in the country while diversifying supply chains beyond China. Government Incentives have also helped attract global electronics manufacturers, boosting the country’s role in global smartphone production.
Apple spent years building its manufacturing footprint in India and today accounts for 57% of the country’s smartphone exports by volume, according to Counterpoint Research data shared with TechCrunch. Chinese brands, on the other hand, dominate Indian smartphone market sales with 72% of the market, but contribute less than 10% of exports, a gap that shows how many advantages are still on the table if they start exporting from India like Apple does.
Apple’s manufacturing expansion in India has been largely driven by suppliers such as Foxconn and dad. Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone brands are exploring more and more partnerships with Indian companies after New Delhi Stricter investment rules for neighboring countries. following the 2020 border clashes with China. Several of those companies, including oppo, Aliveand XiaomiThey have also faced tax and regulatory investigations in India in recent years, which helps explain why ceding majority control to an Indian partner now seems the most sustainable path forward.
Local partnerships like the Dixon-Vivo venture offer Chinese brands a more stable operating model, while aligning with India’s push for greater local participation in electronics manufacturing, said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research.
“The approval of this joint venture brings benefits to both players,” Pathak told TechCrunch. He added that the majority Indian ownership structure provides Vivo with greater policy alignment and at the same time gives Dixon the scale to deepen local value addition and pursue exports.
Vivo has manufactured and exported smartphones from India for years, but the approved venture marks a shift towards a majority Indian-owned manufacturing structure as the market leader deepens its presence in the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The Chinese smartphone supplier retained first place in the Indian smartphone market with a 23% shipment share in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint.
For Dixon, India’s largest electronics manufacturing services company, the company could add annualized manufacturing volumes of around 20 million to 22 million smartphones, based on Vivo’s current sales, according to CEO Atul Lall’s comments during the company’s conference in May. earnings call. This is a significant volume increase for a public company whose growth increasingly depends on winning exactly these types of manufacturing contracts.
dixon already manufactured smartphones for Xiaomi, suggesting the Vivo company builds on an expanding role as a manufacturing partner for both global and Chinese smartphone brands in India, and reinforces its position as one of the most reliable bets in India’s electronics development.
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