Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad terminated the services of its chief executive, Jiang Chao, few days after his trip to CES 2019 in US.

The board of the Hong Kong-listed company met on January 11 and passed a resolution to remove Jiang Chao from all his duties in the company and its subsidiaries, including his positions as chief executive director, vice-chairman, chief executive and board committee roles.

The company appointed Ma Fei as chief financial officer, without saying who will take over as chief executive officer.

Coolpad was once a leading player in the Chinese domestic market before competition forced it to seek greener pastures elsewhere. Shenzhen-based company now derives about 90 percent of its revenue from US.

Coolpad will expand in both the North and South American markets, as well as some European countries, Jiang Chao said in an interview in Las Vegas on January 9. China remains off the road map because of rampant intellectual property (IP) infringement and excessive marketing, he said.

Coolpad retains a 1,000-strong research and development team in China despite the business downturn over the years. China’s local brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo as well as Huawei gained most share in the domestic market.

“For companies like Coolpad, which has a better relationship with local US carriers, its business could be more stabilised in the US than in China where it needs spend more resources to educate the users and expand their business channels,” said Jia Mo, a Shanghai-based analyst with research agency Canalys.

Coolpad’s Jiang forecasts that the company’s revenue in 2019 could be three or four times of that of last year, without being more specific. The company was profitable for most years until 2016.