Tom Hanks’s Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail casually mentions: “Do you know what? We are going to seduce them. We’re going to seduce them with our square footage, and our discounts, and our deep armchairs, and...” then he quickly adds in unison with his friend, “Our cappuccino.”
This very much sums up the new Made in China entrant in the Indian mobile phone market: LeEco, the Chaoyang District-HQed company founded by billionaire Jia Yueting. The square footage is in its specs. The armchair is deep enough for its out-of-the-block design. The extra... the hatke element... the cappuccino... comes in the form of “Supertainment”. More of that later. And it always helps when Jacqueline Fernandez and Sidharth Malhotra promote the phone (but they are not the brand ambassadors).
So, yeh LeEco LeEco kya hai? Atul Jain, COO, LeEcosystem Technologies India Pvt Ltd. answers from Delhi.
What have been the high points since LeEco’s launch in January?
What comes top of my mind is we sold more than five lakh units of Le superphones in just 100 days, an incredible achievement for any start-up in India. Second, most importantly, we were able to do this because we are a genuine market disruptor having pioneered the ecosystem-based content streaming in India.
One of your well-promoted features is Supertainment. How much of the content is live TV?
The Supertainment programme membership comes bundled with our superphones and it’s worth Rs 4,900. Through Yupp TV services, LeEco members have access to 100-plus TV channels, starting from Colors to Sony to many regional channels. The LIVE TV interface is very unique — swipe right for next channel and swipe left to go to previous channel. If you like, you can set channels as your favourites so that you can conveniently revisit them with ease. Through Levidi interface, members can access 2,000-plus movies; the interface that is powered by Eros Now.
Gone are the days when phone companies fought over specs. With Supertainment, we have created a totally new playfield and there is no certainty that a brand leading the current table would necessarily retain its position on the new playfield. We definitely have an edge over others and are confident of being in the top three.
Will you launch LeEco smart TV, which is very popular in China?
We will launch our Super TV in the next two-three months. As you know, we have several ecosystems — content, big screen, mobile, sports, automobile, Internet financing, and the Internet & cloud. We will have an ecosystem where content can be viewed, synchronised and shared seamlessly across all the six screens. So bringing Super TV to India is the second phase of bringing our entire ecosystem to India.
How is the phone’s battery life?
Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I would also like to add one more point. The USB Type-C charger makes charging extremely fast. We have 555 service centres across India. We have tied up with HCL and Flextronics. The 555 service centres are 24x7 toll free, in 10 languages.
Finally, how long can LeEco continue with disruptive pricing (the Le 1s, for example, is priced at Rs 10,999 and specs include 3GB RAM, fingerprint scanner, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, 32GB ROM)?
This disruptive pricing is not something we will stop after some time. It is disruptive pricing for the market, not for us. Disruptive pricing is inherent in our business model. We subsidise hardware by content. So expect more disruptive pricing from us as we bring our other ecosystem division to India.
Electric cars
Aston Martin is setting up a venture with LeEco to jointly develop the luxury car brand’s first electric vehicle, RapidE. “In China we have around 300 million people who visit our website. We could advertise the Aston Martin for free. And we can use celebrities to promote our vehicle. This is the way we do business,” Lei Ding, co-founder of LeEco’s auto division, was quoted in The Guardian.
Pitch perfect
t2 asked LeEco to pitch their phone to
1) a youngster with a Xiaomi/ OnePlus,
2) a person with a Samsung phone,
3) A 35-year-old mid-management guy....
All three buyers have some similarities. The most obvious being that they all travel. This is where we come in. Entertainment on the go. We help kill traffic boredom or help users tide over long journeys. Now coming to pitching ourselves to each one of them…
A student: We are affordable to them. Le 1s Eco is the first budget superphone that comes bundled with Supertainment. We fulfil both their entertainment and selfie needs.
A person with a branded phone: Our specs are better than most established brands. Above all, our superphones don’t cost as much as other smartphones cost. Our customer loyalty programme is far superior. We are pioneering many things in India — USB Type-C charger, ecosystem-based content streaming….
A 35-year-old mid-management guy: He is looking for something more reliable and value for money. He is constantly on the go because of his nature of work. He needs a bigger screen for both his professional and entertainment use. We have the all-in-one superphone.
How much of a factor is price when you buy a mobile? Tell t2@abp.in
