Alex Chung – CEO, Nexstgo

With the laptop being a key thing in today’s world, Hong Kong-headquartered Nexstgo is gung-ho about its business prospects in India. The tech major offers laptops under

Nexstgo and Avita brands, catering to two different sets of consumers, from professionals to youngsters. In a significant development, Nexstgo recently collaborated with Japan-based

Vaio Corporation to bring its popular laptop brand (Vaio) to a number of Asian countries, including India. The company has an aggressive product category expansion strategy to develop different laptop series to the high-end, mass and entry consumer segmentations.

Alex Chung, CEO, Nexstgo, discusses the company’s India-specific vision and more, in an interaction with Ramesh Kumar Raja. Excerpts:

How are Nexstgo and Avita positioning themselves in a hyper-competitive market like India? Where do they stand out? We have adopted different marketing approaches and communications objectives for both the brands, Nexstgo and Avita. Nexstgo’s target segment is the premium and professional customers, corporate and SME clients, and also the modern young executives. Avita, on the other hand, is a lifestyle consumer brand, targeting young users who are more inclined towards techfashion, are trendsetters and students. For Nexstgo, we provide reliable and durable laptops together with business solutions / applications for commercial segment, while for Avita, we use more engaging content and mediums such as collaboration with KOLS in order to reach out to the young target segment.

There’s a conflict between Affordability and Utility in the technology market. In such a scenario, how has been the response of your laptops so far in India? India is one of the key markets for our business, as it is the largest and fast-growing market with great potential in the technology and computer sector. There is an uptrend of India’s tech wave. Indian consumers, especially our targeted middle-class segment, have large consumption power and they tend to look for something premium yet innovative, hence are more open to international brands. So, our top-quality laptops would be very appealing to them, especially for Avita, the brand is widely loved by the Indian young consumers and has got industry recognition and awards such as the “2020 Best Brand Award” of Economic Times and the “Best contemporary design for a laptop brand” of DT Awards.

How do you ensure the quality of your laptops specs-wise, especially considering their diverse use in today’s time? To fulfill ever more demanding user expectations, Nexstgo advocates developing full product

portfolio and technologies transforming the user experience in learning, working, entertainment and social interactions. For Avita, our mainstream model Liber V delivers a wide array of colours and patterns; entry model Essential is an allin-one modern PC, while the 2-in-1 tablet Magus provides users a more flexible and versatile usage to cater to different scenarios. We will continuously expand the product categories including PC for creators, accessories and other IOT products.

You have entered into a partnership with Vaio. Can you please elaborate about the same and what’s next now? Since 2018, Nexstgo has developed a strong partnership with Vaio Corporation in Japan. And in early 2021, we unveiled a strong comeback for Vaio business to the Indian market, introducing different laptop models for different consumer segmentations, such as SE14 – the mainstream model for business travellers and the modern office users; the E Series – designed for the young users to support their energetic work-and-play lifestyles; and Vaio Z – the ultimate flagship device for business elites and premium users. In the coming future, Nexstgo is set to bring an incomparable computing experience to the Indian market by launching a wide range of finest-quality laptops specially designed for modern office.

Which channel you are focusing on to sell your products in India – Online or Offline? What’s Nexstgo doing in this regard? Our laptops are widely loved by the consumers in India, and both online and offline channels are crucial for our sales. We are constantly having strategic collaborations with e-retailers and channel partners such as Amazon, Flipkart, to serve the needs of our consumers.

What’s the market share that you are trying to tap in India and what will be your strategy and investment plan for the next 5-10 years?

There is a rising demand of our laptop products that support the increasingly virtual working and learning lifestyle of the users, people start to realize laptop is a necessity especially in this ongoing new normal environment, which contributes a 10-time sales growth compared to last year. We have a plan to set up more Avita brand shops to bring in unique products and add values to consumers’ lives with the aim to make our brands to the top-tier list in India. Besides, we expect to further extend our footprint and expand our business to the potential markets in Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Europe and the US in the coming five years.

What are you doing to increase the recall value of your brands? We have an aggressive product category expansion strategy to develop different laptop series to the high-end, mass and entry consumer segmentations. We will use different product approaches to penetrate markets and broaden customer profile to recapture Vaio’s substantial market share and popularity among the Indian audiences. We also have a plan to set up more Avita brand shops to bring in unique products and add values to consumers’ lives with the aim to make our brands to the top-tier list in India.

What’s your approach to the “after sales service” in India? Customer service is at the heart of Nexstgo’s business. We have a dedicated customer service team to identify and resolve customers’ enquiries and issues quickly. We provide 24*7 customer service support to end users (Vaio) with a variety of troubleshooting tools and resources.

Please tell us something about R&D and innovation at Nexstgo? Nexstgo’s vision is to develop products that brings technology breakthroughs to users and shapes the future. We have our own R&D centre in Taiwan. Supported by the strong manufacturing and R&D capabilities, we have launched over 100 innovative products over the previous years. We develop customer-centric approach in designing products and customised services that meet customers’ expectations.

Do you have any plan to enter the gaming segment, which is a new trend in the making? Nexstgo will continue to focus on technologies and products that enable people to work and live better in a more connected virtual world, with new high-quality audio-visual features, more intuitive product designs and user interfaces, superior processing power and connectivity. We design and innovate laptops that enable people for content creation which we believe is truly the new trend in the making. We will develop smart devices, such as smart mirror and smart scales, to enrich people’s everyday lives especially in the healthcare area. What’s your vision towards the government’s ‘Make in India’ program? How fruitful it’s going to be for you? We welcome the government’s ‘Make in India’ program as we too share the same vision. For long-term growth, we will recruit talents for better research and development, in order to build tailormade products / IT solutions for the Indian market, with the aim to bring “Made in India” Nexstgo products to the global market in the coming future. ■