Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. said Wednesday it expected annual sales within China to grow 60 percent to US$1.6 billion in the year to March, exceeding its own target "by a large margin."
"This is despite the chilling effect of the SARS virus last year. Our recovery since then was pretty impressive," Sony China Chairman Kei Kodera said.
Sales in China have been driven by brisk demand for digital cameras and other electronic goods.
In China's rapidly expanding and highly competitive digital camera market, Sony has a 30 percent share despite fierce price competition from domestic makers.
By 2008, when Beijing will host the Olympic Games, the company aims to boost its sales in China to around US$9 billion, up from US$1 billion in the year to March 2003. China sales represented less than two percent of Sony's total revenue in the last business year.
Sony, which has invested about US$800 million in China over the last decade, also aimed to quadruple exports from its Chinese operations to one trillion yen (US$9.24 billion) by 2008/09 compared with 2002/03, Kodera said.
Although brisk sales of Cybershot digital still cameras, Vaio personal computers and video camcorders are pushing up its Chinese sales, it will have to wait a little longer to see a substantial boosting effect from its PlayStation 2 game console due to limited software availability.
Sony launched the blockbuster game console earlier this year in some Chinese cities, including Shanghai, braving concerns about rampant piracy that has plagued the vast potential market.
In the area of product marketing and distribution, Sony has no plan to form ties with Chinese manufacturers, Kodera said.
Rival Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is in a business alliance with major Chinese electronics maker TCL Holdings Ltd, and utilizes TCL's sales network to sell its products in rural areas of China.
Also, Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., Japan's third-largest consumer electronics maker, is cooperating with Hai'er Group to sell each other's products in Japan and China, leaving investors wondering if Sony intends to go it alone in the vast nation.
Sony will instead actively cooperate with dealers, agents and other sales representatives as its Chinese sales expand, he said.
(Shenzhen Daily February 28, 2004)
