70% smartphone users in India switched brands in Q2; Xiaomi biggest gainer

More than 70 per cent of smartphone users in India switched brands in the second quarter of this year, befitting Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi the most which sold nearly 37 per cent of the phones that were replaced, according a CyberMedia Research (CMR) report on Wednesday.

Xiaomi was followed by Vivo (17.8 per cent), Oppo (16.3), itel (6.7 per cent) and Huawei's Honor (4.5 per cent), according to the first edition of the CMR "India Smartphone Movement" report.

During the period, the fastest depleting brands in the category were Micromax (41.2 per cent), Intex (11.6 per cent), HTC (5.5 per cent), Karbonn (5.3 per cent) and Gionee (4.7 per cent), the findings showed.

"Customer stickiness is the paramount concern thathomegrownn brands need to address immediately," said Kanika Jain, Manager, New Initiatives, CMR.

Tencent Q4 net profit nearly doubles to 20.8 bn yuan, beats estimates

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd posted on Wednesday a 98 percent rise in quarterly net profit, beating expectations as it deepens monetisation of the growing traffic on its social networks.

Net profit for the three months ended December 31 rose to 20.8 billion yuan ($3.29 billion), China's largest social media and gaming company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

That was above an average estimate of 16.90 billion yuan from 9 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 51 percent to 66.39 billion yuan, compared with analysts' average estimate of 69.5 billion yuan. Monthly active users of the social media mobile app WeChat exceeded 1 billion after the Chinese New Year in February, up from 980 million at the end of September.

Net profit for the full 2017 year rose 74 percent to 71.51 billion yuan. The company declared a final dividend of HK$0.88 per share.