Johannesburg, South Africa - Information technology company ASUS has grown from a little known entity in South Africa to currently having 12% of the local consumer market and being the number one gaming notebook brand in the country with about 50% of market share. 

According to Yolandi Venter, ASUS’ marketing manager for system products focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the company entered the South African market 10 years ago focusing on its components business. Venter says the company’s move into the South African market was an obvious decision by the group as it was already doing well globally. 

Today the Taiwanese company’s portfolio in the South African market includes motherboards, graphics cards, networking, notebooks, laptops and cell phones. 

As of 2013, ASUS decided to put more of its resources into consumer electronic products and has since seen it grow from the number nine notebook vendor to currently holding the number 3 position. 

The company’s gaming division has seen rapid growth, whilst its 2-in-1 devices (notebooks with detachable or convertible screens) are struggling to gain a foothold in the local market, which has become very price sensitive. 

ASUS' commitment to South Africa is seen in the fact that it has invested more money in its local operations over the last six months compared to any previous half-year period. This includes a more than tripling of its market and product spending. 

The local operation has moved away from tablet (Android-based) equipment due to the aggressive white label products streaming into the market. (A white label product is produced by one company which other companies rebrand to make it look as if they have produced it.) "We can see clearly that the top one and two vendors are continuously bustling for that number one spot in the market. For us, making sure we have steady growth is key at the moment and not so much pushing to be number one." 

Venter adds that mainstream products are still ASUS’ focus in South Africa. "This is for the people who just need something reliable mostly for office and home use." 

"To the man in the street ASUS wants to give the latest technology with good value for money. ASUS is the choice for people who are looking for the balance between value for money, features, style and design," she said. 

However, ASUS South Africa is also bringing more unique products to the market, for instance its new ZenBook, Transformer and Gaming series that were recently launched. 

The ZenBook is an ultrabook that competes with Apple’s MacBook Air and has a similar look and feel, but at a lower cost. The Transformer has a detachable touch screen which is perfect for the person on-the-go like business people or students.

The group attributes its growth in South Africa to showing support and forming partnerships with its customers. "By sticking to the basics and doing them right, we can see the growth coming through every quarter."

As a global company, ASUS was founded in 1980 with four employees manufacturing motherboards for Intel. It produced its first graphics card in 1995, and in 1997 it designed its first notebook. ASUS is the world's fourth largest PC vendor by unit sales in 2015.

Last year, the group recorded a revenue of $14 billion (about R188 billion) and it has more than 16 000 employees of which more than 5 500 are involved with research and development. Since 1989, the group has shipped over 500 million motherboards, which, placed end-to-end would form a chain long enough to circle the globe nearly four times.

ASUS finds itself in fourth place under the computer industry category in this year’s Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies list. This is a jump of two places on 2015’s sixth place. Also, it has been Taiwan’s most valuable brand for three consecutive years, i.e. 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Last year, ASUS won 4 368 awards overall, and at Computex 2016 - the largest IT tradeshow in Asia - ASUS won 16 awards with four Best Choice Awards and 12 design and innovation awards.

In the category for 13-inch ultra-slim Windows laptops, the ASUS ZenBook holds the top spot as far as market share is concerned.

ASUS will take the next generation of gaming PCs to markets later this year with the upcoming ROG GX800, the world’s most powerful gaming laptop.

"Our goal is to capture over 50% market share for gaming laptops in the second half of 2016, and continue to be a leader in the gaming laptop market," according to Rex Lee, ASUS Chief Marketing Officer (Systems).

Looking forward, ASUS South Africa wants to be a top three PC vendor brand and it is looking at launching some great products in the months to come, ranging from a new ZenBook series to new All-in-One offerings as well as something big in the gaming segment.

ASUS products are stocked by, amongst others, Hi-Fi Corporation, Dion Wired, Incredible Connection, EveTech and Makro.

ABOUT ASUS

ASUS is a worldwide top-three consumer notebook vendor and maker of the world’s best-selling, most award-winning motherboards. A leading enterprise in the new digital era, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home and office, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktop and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia devices, wireless solutions, networking devices, tablets and smartphones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 4,368 awards in 2015 and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with its Eee PC™. ASUS has more than 17,000 employees around the globe with a world-class R&D team of over 5,500 engineers. Company revenue for 2015 was approximately US$14 billion.

NOTES TO EDITORS

ASUS Global Press Room: http://press.asus.com

ASUS South Africa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASUSza

ASUS South Africa Twitter: https://twitter.com/ASUS_za