Chinese smartphone maker Transsion has never sold a handset in China, but dominates markets across Africa, beating global companies like Apple and Samsung to become market leader. In cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, busy streets are awash with the bright blue shopfronts of Transsion’s flagship brand, Tecno. The company is based in Shenzhen but is largely unknown in China. It 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.

Tecno cameras have been optimized for African complexions, explains Arif Chowdhury, Vice President of Transsion. “Our cameras adjust more light for darker skin, so the photograph is more beautiful,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve become successful.” Transsion founder George Zhu has spent nearly a decade traveling through Africa as head of sales for another mobile phone company when he realized that selling Africans handsets made for developed markets was the wrong approach. In 2006, Zhu launched Tecno in Nigeria, targeting Africa’s most populous nation first. From the start, the company’s motto was “think global, act local,” which meant making phones that met African users’ specific needs.

“When we started doing business in Africa, we noticed people had multiple SIM cards in their wallet,” Chowdhury says. They would awkwardly swap the cards throughout the day to avoid the steep charges operators would levy for calling different networks, says Nabila Popal, who tracks the use of devices in Africa for research firm IDC. “They can’t afford two phones,” says Chowdhury, “so we brought a solution to them.” Zhu made all Tecno handsets dual SIM. More innovations followed. Transsion opened research and development centers in China, Nigeria and Kenya to work out how to better appeal to African users. Local languages such as Amharic, Hausa and Swahili were added to keyboards and phones were given a longer battery life.

African countries suffer frequent power breaks and some users might have to walk tens of kilometers to charge their phone at a local market, so an extended battery life was essential to win market share. But perhaps Transsion’s smartest move was its pricing. It has three main brands: Tecno, Infinix and Itel, selling for between USD15 and USD20, the South China Morning Post reports.

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). Apple’s iPhone is still considered a luxury product that many Africans aspire to own but can’t afford.

Chinese tech companies are deploying their cloud services overseas, and moving up the sector’s global rankings as they do so. According to Charlie Dai, Principal Analyst at consultancy Forrester, there are two key drivers behind their bid to tap into global markets – to better serve Chinese customers’ globalization strategies and to extend their own digital territories. “They could replicate their Chinese market successes in global regions, just as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are doing in China,” he said.

According to Gartner Research Director Kevin Ji, cloud computing is essentially about economies of scale for service providers. Expanding their coverage lowers average costs and pushes forward global infrastructure delivery. To date, only a handful of Chinese players, including Alibaba Group, Tencent and Huawei Technologies, have appeared as emerging forces in a market currently dominated by Western competitors led by Amazon.com and Microsoft, he said. “Only Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Huawei Cloud have straightforward globalization strategies, each with a distinctive approach,” Ji said.

The cloud computing arm of Tencent announced in March the opening of four new data centers to enhance its international cloud computing presence. The new centers offer a range of solutions including storage, cloud security, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI).

“Globalization is an important part of Tencent Cloud’s strategy,” said Qiu Yuepeng, Vice president of Tencent and President of Tencent Cloud. “By offering our advanced cloud computing infrastructure across the globe, we can not only share Tencent Cloud’s technology and expand our portfolio of industry solutions, but also lower costs and increase efficiency across a variety of industries.” According to Tencent, its new data center in Hong Kong serves as Tencent Cloud’s second financial sector-focused facility in the city. Two new data centers in the United States – in Silicon Valley and Virginia – ensure coverage across the country’s east and west coasts. The fourth new data center, in Mumbai, India, will serve as a core hub for Tencent Cloud in South Asia, boosting its total number of available cloud computing zones to 42.

Alibaba’s cloud computing unit launched its first data center in Indonesia in March, aiming to address the growing demand for reliable and scalable cloud services among the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises. Alibaba Cloud has so far entered 18 countries and regions. Its latest push saw the company’s cloud services extend to Turkey in April through a partnership with e-Glober, an Istanbul-based business-to-business (B2B) services provider. Alibaba is banking on Asia and the Middle East to better tap into the Belt and Road Initiative, whereas Tencent is more closely following the steps of its clients.

Huawei’s strength lies in its ties with leading foreign telecom operators, such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefonica, helping them to build their public cloud capability using Huawei technology. With only a few years of development, some Chinese companies in the sector have started to climb the global rankings. A Gartner report released last year highlighted Alibaba’s high potential, ranking it No 4 globally for “Ability to Execute”, ahead of IBM and Oracle Systems. But Kevin Ji of Gartner said that despite their rapid development, Chinese companies still lack genuine technological breakthroughs and innovation, meaning they have very little in the way of unique differentiation compared with other providers, the China Daily reports.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for enhanced international exchange and cooperation in the development of the Big Data industry in a congratulatory letter to the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, which is vigorously promoting the big data industry. The rapid development of new-generation information technologies such as the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant and far-reaching impact on social and economic development , state governance, social management, and people’s life in all countries, Xi said. He added that more communication and cooperation is needed in the big data sector to handle challenges such as data security and cyberspace governance.

China is implementing a national big data strategy centered on building the country’s strength in cyberspace and nurturing a digital China and smart society, which will aid the transition of the country’s economy from high-speed growth to high-quality development, President Xi said. China is expected to become the world’s largest data owner by 2020, accounting for 20% of global data. Information technologies are playing an increasingly important role in fueling economic growth. In 2017, China’s digital economy accounted for CNY27.2 trillion, or 32.9% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Lin Nianxiu, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that China will boost the application of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain.

The latest 5G technology and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest radio telescope, were two of the highlights of the 2018 China International Big Data Expo in Guiyang. The global event exhibited 51 cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements and more than 1,000 cutting-edge products and technologies. Held for the fourth time since 2015, the expo attracted a record 47,000 representatives, including 536 overseas attendees from 28 countries and 388 big data companies. Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co, a joint venture between Qualcomm and the Guizhou provincial government, exhibited the first-generation server chip, built using an advanced chip manufacturing process with an accuracy of 10 nanometers.

Guizhou is constructing a national big data demonstration center in Guiyang and the inauguration ceremony of the Apple iCloud China (Gui’an) Data Center Project was held in the Guian New Area last week. Apple will invest USD1 billion in the project, the China Daily reports. Guizhou has more than 8,900 big data enterprises with a total output value exceeding CNY110 billion and announced 100 key investment projects in the sector.

The Fourth World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen, near Shanghai in Zhejiang province, from December 3 till 5. It is an annual gathering of mainly Chinese internet officials and internet company executives as well as officials from developing countries. The theme of the conference was “Developing Digital Economy for Openness and Shared Benefits – Building a Community of Common Future in Cyberspace”.

The previous three conferences in 2014, 2015 and 2016 were not attended by heavyweight U.S. tech executives, but this year, the CEOs of Apple and Google, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, attended the conference. Cook told the event that “the theme of this conference is a vision we at Apple share” adding that Apple “is proud to have worked alongside many of our partners in China to help build a community that will join a common future in cyberspace”. Google’s Pichai told delegates that “a lot of work Google does is to help Chinese companies. Many small and medium-sized businesses in China take advantages of Google to get their products to many other countries outside of China.” Cook was a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, speaking after Wang Huning, the newly promoted Politburo Standing Committee Member in charge of ideology. One promising initiative is the digital Silk Road: accelerating internet infrastructure to develop artificial intelligence, big data and sharing economy, said Luigi Gambardella, President of ChinaEU, a non-profit organization promoting digital and internet cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory message to the conference that China hopes to encourage countries around the world “to take a ride on the express train of internet and digital economic development”. Xi said China hopes to work with the international community to respect cyberspace sovereignty and carry forward the spirit of partnership to commonly advance development, safeguard security, participate in governance, and share the benefits. “China’s door to the world will never close, but will only open wider,” he said. Over 1,500 guests from more than 80 countries and regions attended the conference.

China had 751 million internet users by the end of June of this year, or one-fifth of world’s total, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. It is home to two of the world’s top 10 technology firms by market capitalization – New York-listed Alibaba Group and Hong Kong-listed Tencent. However, the websites of Google, Facebook and Twitter, among others, are still banned in China.

Electronic gaming is big business in China with its 600 million gamers, almost double the population of the United States, driving an industry worth USD24.6 billion annually. Gaming hardware suppliers such as Logitech are keen to tap into the massive market potential of a country where almost every other person plays a PC or mobile game. Known more for its computer mice and keyboards, the Swiss-based company doubled down on its gaming hardware business five years ago and today counts China as a key market for its Logitech G line of gaming accessories, according to Quin Liu, Vice President and Managing Director of Logitech in the Asia-Pacific region. In an interview with the South China Morning Post he pointed towards the League of Legends World 2017 finals in Beijing as an indicator of the industry’s rapid growth. Held in early November, the finals for China’s most popular PC game were held at the Beijing National Stadium or Bird’s Nest, with a maximum capacity of 91,000 spectators.

China’s obsession with e-sports has proven to be an opportunity for brands like Logitech and rival Razer to showcase their gaming accessories in front of the millions of Chinese gamers who watch e-sports competitions live or online. Logitech has sponsored professional gaming teams, including the winning South Korean team in the so-called World Cup tournament for the popular PC game Overwatch in November. The thinking behind the sponsorship strategy is that gamers will be eager to use the same gaming accessories that top e-sports teams use for tournaments. Hong Kong-listed Razer actively sponsors a top Chinese League of Legends gaming team and has engaged Hong Kong celebrities to help promote its products.

On JD.com, Logitech’s CNY399 G502 programmable gaming mouse is the top-selling product in its category. “If you don’t have this mouse, you can’t call yourself a gamer in China,” Logitech’s Liu said. “Three or four years ago the China market was more low end and price sensitive, but now that’s gone away,” he said, adding that gamers are now much more willing to spend on high-end accessories. For Logitech, gaming accessories account for almost 18% of its total sales globally, and is the third largest category behind its bread-and-butter business of PC mice and keyboards, according to its second quarter earnings report.

Razer, which has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Singapore, is also going head to head with Logitech when it comes to sales of gaming peripherals in China. During the Alibaba Singles’ Day shopping festival on November 11, Razer said it emerged as the top gaming peripherals brand in terms of sales, with Chinese consumers mostly snapping up its Deathadder mice series and Blackwidow gaming keyboards, the South China Morning Post reports.