A group of us went on an exclusively sponsored trip by African Mobile Giant, TECNO Mobile to tour the big city of Shanghai and ofcourse, to visit Transsion Holdings – the parent company of TECNO Mobile, Infinix, and Itel.
The experience was a really amazing one and also an eye-opener right from when we started the Visa Processing in Lagos, Nigeria. you can watch my Shanghai Experience Vlog
HERE.
We took off from Lagos on the 8
th February and it was going to be a very long and connecting flight, first to Addis Ababa which took about 4hours and then to Shanghai.
The flight experience was good, the coffee was good, the food was fair, they also had quite a good collection of movies and documentaries to watch and all of these kept me awake for the most part of the flight. I also took the chance to learn about Ethiopia and I was in awe of how amazing and rich the country is in culture and heritage. Who knew mankind originated from Ethiopia?
We arrived at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai after about 9hrs of flight, the cold was crazy, I mean we had all the heads-up to better help us prepare but it was still freezing cold. Never felt anything like it. For the first time, I had smoke coming out of my mouth and that was pretty cool. Lol! Yankee boy!
Straight to the hotel in the heart of the big city of Shanghai, we settled in properly and the adventure started, the first was food, I had this crazy idea of tasting everything Chinese on this trip and at the end of the day, I’d say I tried, especially that I also began to eat with the chopstick.
Chinese People do the most with food but I was ready for some food adventure – hello, are you listening to me, I had frog meat and that was actually the best meat I had all through. Just so you know, it tastes a little like chicken and fish, but what really made it go down well with me was the spicing, it was good, really good compared to other dishes where the spicing was totally Chinese – and by that, I mean totally off. Also, there was lots of tea. I think I had more tea than water on this trip. Well, it was winter so that’s understandable but really, I learned tea is a huge part of the Chinese Culture, each cup refill I had had me saying Xie Xie to the restaurant attendants which means “Thank You” in Chinese but deep down in my mind, can somebody, just anyone get me some freaking water pleaseeeeeeee?
We took a tour of the city, soaked in the view of the massive cityscapes, well-laid roads with signs that were followed strictly. Never seen a city with so many bicycles but it appeared to be the most used for transportation.
The city was being decorated for the
Chinese New Year, and as we walked around old town, we had the opportunity to see local gifts shops, generic Chinese items, and elements, food stalls, other tourists alike and the entire environment looking touristically appealing.
Amidst all the set up where also large shopping malls that accommodated global brands and you can see people, tourists especially moving in and out, some buying stuff but also finding out if spending 100s of Yuan(Chinese currency) on an item is a smart move or not. You know how you can quickly do the maths in your head to know whether it is best to buy a particular item in your own country.
The city of Shanghai looked really futuristic and colorful at night with the city lights popping and everything written in Chinese which I have no idea what they saying but makes for a good calligraphic design.
Visit To Transsion Holdings::
We were greeted by the head of TECNO Mobile and Infinix, other staff and engineers who work tirelessly behind the scene to meet up with global standards and demands.
We went further into some of the laboratories, like the High and Low Temp Labs( for testing performance during varying temp conditions ), the SW Automation Lab( to fish out any bugs in the phone), Optics Lab( To test out the camera features), and the Audio Lab( to test out sound quality).
We were also given the audience to share ideas and thoughts so far on the company’s mobile devices and going by what I saw and learned, I was very impressed at the pace the brand is developing to cater for consumer needs in the Mobile Phone industry.
Facts to know:
Founded in 2006 by George Zhu Zhaojiang with a mission to satisfying Mobile Communication and a vision to provide efficiency in emerging markets, Transsion Holdings is home to TECNO Mobile(first phone brand), Itel (2nd phone brand), and Infinix(3rd phone brand, launched in 2012) just as I mentioned earlier but not just that, the company also has in its family tree Carlcare(Phone Support Facility), Syinix(Electronics), Spice(Mobile phone brand with a market in India), Oraimo(Phone Accessories, launched in 2014).
– The Company originally traded as Tecno Telecom Limited until 2006
– Research carried out in Africa and Latin America convinced owner – Zhaojiang on Africa as most lucrative market
– TECNO became the first dual SIM phone to hit the African market following the realization that users needed more than one SIM card for their day-to-day operations.
– By 2010, the company had grown to rank number 3 in Africa by sales volume.
– By 2011, Transsion Holdings’ became first company to set up mobile factory in Africa – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
– In 2016, TECNO was ranked 14th most admirer brand in Africa, Itel ranked 25th and Infinix ranked 37th. Amazing!
– Total mobile phone Shipment was 79.91million in 2016.
– 200 million mobile phones sold globally.
– Research and Development Centers in China (Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing). The company also works with Local R & D professionals in Lagos, Nairobi and Hong Kong and a design team in France.
– Transsion Holdings’ brands are present in about 60 emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and South East Asia