Second-hand smartphone market in India may generate $4.6 billion by 2025: Report

The second-hand smartphone market in India is likely to generate revenue of more than $2.3 billion, at an average of Rs 6,900 per device, with 25 million devices being traded in 2021, a new report showed on Friday.

This is an increase of 14 per cent from 2019 and is expected to rise to 51 million traded second-hand smartphones generating $4.6 billion in revenue by 2025, according to the report by the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) in collaboration with leading market research firm IDC.

The second-hand smartphone market in India has evolved over the last couple of years and multiple large and small players have made their way into the market

“India should be the global hub of remanufacturing and recommerce by leveraging its delta of labour cost. Re-commerce’s profound growth will effectively reduce the digital divide by enabling migration from feature phones to smartphones,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA.

IDC estimated that 90 million used smartphones were to enter the second-hand market in 2021, in addition to another 60 million that are eligible for trade from previous years.

Nearly 25 million units of these smartphones will be traded in the second-hand market in 2021.

According to the report, more than 95 per cent of all the secondhand phones are sold “As-it is” and the remaining 5 per cent go through some kind of repair or refurbishment.

Among the consumer electronics devices, smartphones are the largest volume driver (90 per cent) in the secondhand market currently, and others such as laptops, smartwatches, gaming consoles, and cameras are picking up gradually

Nearly 78 per cent of the users buying a second-hand smartphone have a monthly income of less than Rs 30,000, and 18 per cent have a monthly income of Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000.

“There is a massive opportunity in this untapped segment to not only reduce the digital divide by making smartphones more affordable and accessible but also to lower the negative environmental impact caused by electronics waste,” said Kiranjeet Kaur, senior research manager with IDC’s Asia/Pacific Client Devices Group.

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