Honor, a leading smartphone e-brand under the Huawei Group, is investing some US$4 million (126 million baht) in its first year of operation, aiming to join the top-three players in Thailand by 2020.
The move is in direct competition with e-brand Xiaomi and Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo.
"We believe consumers have different brand preferences and choices, similar to classic cars, and that's why we came out with dual smartphone brands: Huawei and Honor," said Akin Li, Honor's Southeast Asia president.
Mr Li said Honor is still a young brand, started in 2013 and expanding overseas in 2014, starting with Europe, the US and Russia.
"The Mate and P Series Huawei are a premium brand, while Honor targets younger consumers, as well as the young at heart, tech-savvy customers and digital natives ranging from 15-35 years old," he said.
The company decided to expand to Southeast Asia as part of its strategy to achieve an even split of its total revenue from China and the overseas markets by 2020.
"We expanded to Vietnam and Thailand in March, and Indonesia in April," said Mr Li.
The company has set high ambitions to be among the top five smartphones producers within three years globally and top three in five years.
In Thailand, it hopes to be in the top three in 2020 by securing 10-15% market share within that time.
Honor is mainly focusing on smartphones below 8,000 baht, which make up over 60% of the 18 million smartphones in use.
Mr Li said Honor earned $100 million revenue for 2013 in China, which increased to $2 billion in 2014 and doubled to $4 billion in 2015 and the company ranks in the top five in China.
The company has introduced three models to the Thai market -- the Honor 9 Lite Quad-Lens, the gaming smartphone Honor 7X, and the budget-friendly Honor 7C, priced at 5,000 baht. By the end of 2018, Honor expects to offer 5-6 models in total.
Honor continues to focus on selling online through Lazada and Shopee while expanding offline channels through selective Big C superstores.
Online channels are expected to contribute some 30% of revenue, while 70% is expected to come from retail shops.
