In recent years, Indonesia’s digital economy has developed vigorously, with the penetration rate of mobile Internet continuously rising. The demand for the smartphone market has ushered in explosive growth, making it one of the most promising consumer electronics markets in Southeast Asia. As an important destination for Chinese enterprises to go global, Chinese manufacturing and Chinese enterprises have become increasingly prominent in Indonesia’s mobile phone market, accounting for nearly 99% of the market share. It has become an important epitome of pragmatic economic and trade cooperation between China and Indonesia, and also provides an important reference for Chinese enterprises to expand into Indonesia.
I. Prominent Market Dividends: Indonesia’s Mobile Phone Imports Surge Fourfold in Three Years
According to the “2026 Indonesia Statistical Data” released by Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the scale of Indonesia’s mobile phone imports has achieved leapfrog growth in the past three years, becoming an important signal of the recovery of the local consumer market. In 2025, Indonesia’s mobile phone CIF import volume reached 2.98 billion US dollars, an increase of 53.2% compared with 1.94 billion US dollars in 2024; compared with 725 million US dollars in 2022, the import scale has increased by more than four times in three years, showing a strong momentum of market expansion.
From the perspective of annual trends, Indonesia’s mobile phone imports once fell back to about 725 million US dollars in 2022, and then entered a rapid upward channel: in 2023, the import volume jumped to 1.97 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of nearly 172%; it remained stable in 2024, and made another breakthrough to 2.98 billion US dollars in 2025, setting the largest increase in the past five years. This trend fully indicates that Indonesia’s smartphone consumer market is in a period of continuous expansion, and the potential of market demand is continuously released.
II. Dominant Pattern of Chinese Enterprises: Industrial Chain Advantages Behind Nearly 99% Share
In Indonesia’s mobile phone import market, Chinese enterprises have occupied an absolute dominant position relying on their complete industrial chain advantages, high-quality products and flexible localization strategies. Data show that in 2025, Indonesia’s mobile phone imports from China reached 2.97 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 99% of the total mobile phone imports, which means that the vast majority of smartphones circulating in the Indonesian market are manufactured in China or OEM-produced by Chinese enterprises.
The formation of this pattern is not only due to China’s industrial accumulation as the world’s core mobile phone production base, but also inseparable from the active layout of Chinese enterprises. At present, China not only has well-known independent brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, but also is the core production base for many international brands around the world – including some iPhone models of Apple, which are mainly produced and assembled in China and then exported to Indonesia and other global markets. At the same time, Chinese enterprises represented by vivo and OPPO have laid out localized production bases in Indonesia, realizing comprehensive landing from products to services, and further consolidating their market advantages.
III. Limited Supplementary Sources, Chinese Enterprises’ Core Position Unshakable
In addition to China, the United States and Hong Kong, China are the main supplementary sources of mobile phone imports in Indonesia, but their scale is far from that of China, making it difficult to shake the dominant position of Chinese enterprises. In 2025, Indonesia’s mobile phone imports from the United States reached about 546 million US dollars, a slight increase compared with 543 million US dollars in 2024, and a significant increase compared with 202 million US dollars in 2022; mobile phone imports from Hong Kong, China were about 278 million US dollars, a decline compared with the previous two years.
On the whole, China still has prominent advantages in the integrity of the mobile phone industrial chain, production scale and cost control. In addition, Chinese enterprises continue to deepen their localized layout, further expanding the gap with other import sources, and becoming an indispensable core supplier in Indonesia’s mobile phone market.
IV. Demand-Driven Growth: Dual Empowerment of Digital Economy and Demographic Dividend
The rapid expansion of Indonesia’s mobile phone market is inseparable from the dual support of digital economy development and demographic dividend. As the most populous country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has a population of more than 280 million, of which the number of smartphone users has exceeded 200 million. The huge user base has laid a solid foundation for market growth.
In recent years, digital services such as e-commerce, mobile payment, online entertainment and social media have developed rapidly in Indonesia. Smartphones have become the core terminal equipment for local residents to obtain digital services and carry out daily social activities. With the continuous enrichment of mobile Internet application scenarios, consumers’ demand for mobile phone replacement continues to rise, which further promotes the growth of mobile phone imports and provides a broad market space for Chinese mobile phone enterprises.
V. Local Manufacturing to Be Improved, Policy Orientation Spawns Cooperation Opportunities
Although the Indonesian government has actively promoted the localization of the electronic manufacturing industry in recent years, introduced the TKDN (Local Content Level) policy to encourage enterprises to build production and assembly bases locally, and attracted some Chinese brands to set up factories, the overall electronic industry in Indonesia is still in the development stage and has not yet formed a complete industrial chain system.
At present, Indonesia’s electronic industry is mainly concentrated in the whole machine assembly link, and it still relies heavily on imports in core component production, high-end model manufacturing and industrial chain supporting fields. It is worth noting that Indonesia has implemented the “Positive Investment List” system since 2023. Except for clearly restricted industries, 100% foreign ownership is allowed in most business areas, providing a more convenient policy environment for Chinese enterprises to invest in Indonesia. At the same time, in order to enter the Indonesian market, Apple has promised to increase investment and raise the local component content of its products to 40%, which also reflects the attractiveness of the Indonesian market and the impact of localization policies from the side.
VI. Broad Investment Prospects: Key Areas for Chinese Enterprises to Layout
With the continuous growth of Indonesia’s mobile phone market, investment opportunities related to the electronic industry are gradually emerging, providing an important direction for Chinese enterprises to expand into Indonesia. In addition to mobile phone whole machine manufacturing, there are large market gaps in industrial chain supporting fields such as mobile phone accessories, electronic components, charging equipment, batteries and packaging materials, as well as related service fields such as mobile phone maintenance services and online sales channels.
Chinese enterprises can rely on their own industrial chain advantages, actively respond to Indonesia’s localization policies, deepen cooperation with local enterprises, continue to make efforts in whole machine manufacturing, industrial chain supporting and other fields, further expand market space and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
In general, Indonesia’s smartphone market is still in a period of high-speed growth. With multiple advantages such as industrial chain, products and localized layout, Chinese enterprises have occupied an absolute dominant position in the local market. In the future, with the continuous development of Indonesia’s digital economy and the gradual advancement of industrial localization policies, the cooperation space between China and Indonesia in the field of electronic manufacturing will be further expanded, which also provides valuable opportunities for Chinese enterprises to go global.
