Following the bankruptcy of South Korea's Weikai Mobile Phone, Pantech, another brand of Helio, also sadly withdrew from the Chinese market yesterday.

It had more than 100 sales at its peak

A few months ago, Rain, the popular Korean king, came to Shanghai as the spokesperson of Pantech Mobile Phones and performed and filmed the movie together with Sun Li, the popular young beauty in China. The first Chinese MV. Pantech officials said at the time that the new Pantech 2006 mysterious mobile phone that appeared in the MV will be released soon after the MV is released. Truth or Dare, sponsored by Pantech, was also a hit.

However, recently, a large poster of Rain holding a Pantech mobile phone and smiling charmingly was removed from the passage of the Shanghai People's Square subway station. The office at Fenglian Plaza in Beijing, where South Korea's Pantech China headquarters is located, is empty. According to a person who has worked at Pantech, many Pantech mobile phones are selling well in Shanghai, with an average of 3,000 units sold a month. Calculated based on the price of 1,500 yuan per unit, the total sales are still considerable, with peak sales During the period, the company had more than 100 Sales (sales personnel).

The reason for bankruptcy is related to Weikai

The reason for Pantech’s bankruptcy is said to be related to Weikai. In July last year, Wei, one of the two brands under Helio, went bankrupt after failing to repay its debts on time due to financial difficulties. At that time, some analysts pointed out that this may mean that another mobile phone manufacturer, Pantech, will also declare bankruptcy.

Weikai said in a telephone interview with Korean media that day that the company had officially notified its major trading banks that the 1.781 billion Korean won debt that was supposed to be repaid five days ago had not been paid by the end of the transition period. We will discuss future solutions with creditors soon. Weikai has announced the news on the stock exchange. The person in charge of Weikai claimed that even if it is eventually forced to go bankrupt, it does not mean that the company has stopped operating and will negotiate with creditors on a restructuring plan. The Korea Financial Settlement Service will notify the cessation of Weikai's trading arrears, and the stock exchange will announce the decision to cancel Weikai's listing.

In fact, Weikai withdrew from the Chinese market due to debt problems, which caused a considerable shock to the Korean banking industry. Because Korean mobile phone companies need the guarantee of a large amount of bank loan funds to expand overseas markets, after the problems with Weikai mobile phones, the Korean banking industry began to strictly review the development projects of domestic companies in overseas markets, the focus of which included Pantech.

The reporter saw this message on Helio’s homepage yesterday: “Don’t call us a mobile phone manufacturer.” The Korea Times reported that only the two largest mobile phone manufacturers in South Korea, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, may ultimately be able to avoid bankruptcy, and the rest of the mobile phone manufacturers will be unable to escape the fate of bankruptcy.

Lack of localization was the main reason for the failure

The reporter called the Beijing headquarters of Pantech Communications (China) Co., Ltd. several times yesterday, but as of press time, no one answered the switchboard. A person familiar with the matter said: "There is no one left for a long time. The Koreans have all left and the company has been disbanded."

An Analysys International mobile phone analyst pointed out that weak localization is the reason why these days Korean mobile phone manufacturers ultimately failed for the same reason. Take Pantech as an example. It entered China late and failed to launch classic best-selling products in time. Japanese mobile phones, on the other hand, focus too much on functions and ignore Chinese consumers’ pursuit of appearance. Most of them are mid- to high-end brands and do not invest heavily in channels. Another analyst from Nuosheng Consulting once concluded to the media: "With the intensification of competition in the global mobile phone market, due to the dilution of profits in the mobile phone industry, and the weakening of support from banks and governments, small and medium-sized manufacturers that lack scale advantages will The possibility of being eliminated will be greatly increased."

Timetable for Japanese and Korean mobile phones to withdraw from the Chinese market

In March 2005, Toshiba became the first foreign mobile phone brand to withdraw from the Chinese mobile phone market;

Following closely behind is Panasonic. In December 2005, Panasonic announced the closure of factories in the Philippines, Beijing and the Czech Republic. Panasonic mobile phones have now withdrawn from the Chinese market;

Next is Mitsubishi. In February 2006, Mitsubishi Mobile held an internal company meeting and announced the abolition of its mobile phone department in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and officially withdrew from the Chinese mobile phone market;

In July 2006, Weikai suddenly announced that it was unable to pay 17.8 It filed for bankruptcy due to overdue debts of KRW 100 million. Immediately afterwards, its joint venture in China, Fujian Weikai, was also exposed to be unsustainable. As a result, Weikai became the first Korean mobile phone manufacturer to withdraw from the Chinese market;

In December 2006, NEC Mobile Phones, which was once famous in China, also announced its withdrawal from the 2G and 2.5G mobile phone markets except Japan. ;

In January 2007, Pantech Mobile quietly withdrew from the Chinese market.