[Column] Chinese Companies' Aggression Dominates MWC Venue

The highlight of this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 is the rise of Chinese companies. While walking around the exhibition hall, I noticed an unusually large crowd in front of one company’s booth. It turned out that Xiaomi was demonstrating its Cyber Dog robot. Huawei’s exhibition hall, which occupied the entire Hall 1, was five times the size of Samsung Electronics’. The Huawei exhibition was only accessible to pre-registered visitors, and even from a distance, it was clear that something significant was happening, prompting several domestic companies to inquire about the exhibition content. They expressed envy, speculating that Huawei might have spent up to 10 billion KRW to set up the exhibition hall. At booths for Xiaomi, Oppo, Honor, and others, people who appeared to be IT YouTubers were demonstrating smartphones and filming. Outside the exhibition hall, Chinese companies also stood out. Xiaomi plastered the area near the exhibition center with advertisements for its new smartphone, the ‘Xiaomi 13’.

Even a famous feast leaves no impression if there is nothing to eat. However, this time, the Chinese booths at MWC were a lavish spread. It seems like only yesterday when Chinese foldable phones would flop backward due to poor hinges, but Oppo’s Find N2 Flip was so convincing that some mistook it for a Galaxy Z Flip at first glance. Seeing Honor’s Magic Vs brought to mind the Galaxy Z Fold.

Samsung Electronics’ executives also paid close attention to the Chinese companies. Kyung Kye-hyun, President of Samsung Electronics’ DS Division, visited the Oppo exhibition hall for a business meeting. Park Yong-in, President of the System LSI Business Division, also toured the Chinese company booths. Choi Joo-sun, President of Samsung Display, responded “Yes” when asked if Chinese companies were threatening.

Korea is undoubtedly an advanced country in information and communication technology (ICT). The story that Chinese companies are catching up to Korea has been told for 15 years. Now, China is no longer a frightening latecomer. It is a competitor running side by side. The crude-feeling Chinese foldable phones of the past are gone. In a short time, they have released products comparable to Korean ones but at lower prices. Huawei spent 29% of last year’s revenue on research and development (R&D). It would not be surprising if Chinese companies were evaluated as surpassing Korea as soon as tomorrow.

However, despite investing huge amounts of money and being good at imitation, there is one thing Chinese companies have yet to replicate: Apple’s ‘emotion.’ Even though the technological gap with Apple has narrowed significantly, the emotional gap remains the same as ten years ago. Samsung has excellent technology but still has ambiguous emotion. Now, in addition to technological innovation, it must consider emotion that cannot be imitated.