Smartphone startup OnePlus announced today that it will launch in Indonesia. The move is a significant one for the company, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, because smartphone penetration in Indonesia is still relatively low — about 23 percent of its 250 million population — but growing quickly.
In fact, research firm Emarketer believes it will become the world’s fourth-largest smartphone market by 2018 behind China, India, and the U.S., with over 100 million active users.
OnePlus smartphones will be sold in Indonesia exclusively through Lazada, the e-commerce platform backed by Rocket Internet. The devices will be available on Lazada’s Indonesian portal starting next month and brick-and-mortar service centers will also be opened in several cities. OnePlus said its 64GB Sandstone Black OnePlus One will be sold for 4,499,000 Indonesia rupiah, or about $362.
In Indonesia, OnePlus will have to face-off with several other makers of low-to-mid-priced Android-based smartphones, including Xiaomi, which launched in Indonesia in August. By December, Xiaomi told the WSJ it had already sold over 100,000 Redmi 1S (its cheapest model, which sells for about $120) and Redmi Note phablets.
Like OnePlus, Xiaomi also saves on overhead by selling its phones online. In fact, its launch in the Philippines was also through Lazada.