Chinese smartphone maker Oppo on Wednesday cancelled the livestream launch of its flagship 5G smartphone in the country, hours after protests calling for boycott of Chinese products in various parts of the country.
The Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh.
A violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night left 20 Indian Army personnel dead. This has stirred anti-China sentiments with protesters and some trade bodies like CAIT calling for boycott of Chinese products.
The company had earlier scheduled a launch for 4 pm IST, but later changed that to a 20-minute video announcing the phone.
AS per agency reports the decision was taken to “avoid any possible uproar on social media” from consumers who have been calling for Chinese products to be boycotted in the country.
Many in India have been calling for the boycott of Chinese products lately, a sentiment that has seemed to grow ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country. The sentiments are expected to grow now, since the two countries are tussling at the border.
Oppo, which ranks among the top five smartphone vendors in India, had said it will livestream the launch of its Find X2 smartphone on Wednesday via YouTube.
However, the livestream was cancelled later on, and the company instead uploaded a pre-recorded video.
While Oppo did not respond to queries seeking reason for the cancellation, reports suggest that the cancellation was done in view of the protests.
In a press release, the company said the premium 5G ‘Find X2’ handset will be available in India for Rs 64,990.
On Twitter, hashtags like #HindiCheeniByeBye (32,900 tweets) and #BharatVsChina (3,657 Tweets) were trending.
Four of the top five smartphone brands in India (Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo) are from China, and accounted for almost 76 per cent share of smartphones shipped in India in the March 2020 quarter.
South Korea’s Samsung, which ranked third and cornered 15.6 per cent share of shipment in the said quarter, is the only non-Chinese firm in the top five tally.