John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, said he has no plans of expanding into China despite admitting it’s “too big a market to ignore.” In an interview with Reuters, Chen said the company is currently focused on emerging markets where BlackBerry already has a strong presence, such as India and Southeast Asia. “It takes too long to ramp up to a size that is even reasonable in China” Chen said. “Even if I have that time and money I’ll probably have better returns going into a different set of markets that we are already in.”
Blackberry Ltd Chief Executive John Chen sees Asia as key to reviving the loss-making smartphone maker’s fortunes but expanding in the region’s biggest market China, where security data concerns are rife, is currently not a priority. Chen, who has been managing the company’s turnaround for the past year, told Reuters that concerns over information security and the political backlash that security breaches could create dimmed the allure of the world’s biggest smartphone market for Blackberry for the time being. Instead, the company is keen on expanding in India and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Chen said in an interview in Beijing this week during his first visit as CEO to mainland China, where he attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. “It takes too long to ramp up to a size that is even reasonable (in China),” said Chen.
