Written by: Sansheng

Every November is usually the time when mobile phone manufacturers release their flagship new phones. However, this year, the pace has been accelerated, with nearly 10 flagship new phones hitting the market in October, including the OPPO Find X8 series and flagship ecosystem products released at the end of the month.

In an interview after the launch event, Liu Zuohu, Chief Product Officer of OPPO, bluntly stated that OPPO's target this time is Apple. "We want to convert Apple users. To put it bluntly, we want to give Apple users another option," he said.

Observing the OPPO Find X8 series from various aspects such as design, performance, imaging, and even pricing, it is also evident that it is benchmarking against the newly released iPhone 16. Of course, regarding whether the OPPO Find X8 has the strength to compete with Apple and Samsung, Liu Zuohu said that to be high-end, it is inevitable to compete directly with Apple and Samsung. He is very confident in OPPO, "When comparing products, we are very confident. Our portrait photography is the best."

Indeed, Apple and Samsung, as representatives of high-end phones, have always been the target that domestic phone brands have wanted to challenge. It is precisely with this challenge that domestic brands have continued to progress, ultimately standing on the main battlefield where Apple and Samsung truly compete, namely the global mobile phone market, and OPPO can be considered a representative among them.

1. Establish a stronghold step by step and take root in the international market?

If I had to summarize OPPO's 15 years of overseas expansion in one sentence, it would be, "Establish a stronghold step by step and forge a unique path from Southeast Asia to Europe and then to Latin America." As for methodology, Liu Zuohu's statement that "the best globalization is localization" is the best summary.

A mobile phone and digital product dealer told Jiedian Caijing that OPPO's development in overseas markets has indeed been impressive, especially in several Southeast Asian countries, where it has become a leading brand.

Currently, OPPO has developed the Southeast Asian mobile phone market into its foundation, ranking first in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia and second in Indonesia. In the relatively mature European market, it currently ranks fifth, with second-place rankings in Portugal and Finland. In the emerging Latin American market, it temporarily ranks fourth in the Mexican market and is rapidly expanding in Argentina and Brazil this year.

In terms of overall achievements, since entering the Thai market in 2009, OPPO has established over 300,000 retail stores in more than 70 countries and regions on five continents, becoming the only Chinese mobile phone brand that can compete head-to-head with Apple and Samsung in overseas markets.

OPPO's significant progress in globalization is largely attributed to its strategic direction. In the words of OPPO's founder and CEO Chen Mingyong, "You need to take things one step at a time. Every time you enter a new market, you need to dig in deeply and not just dabble. Once you succeed in this market, it will naturally extend to the next."

OPPO first established a foothold in the Southeast Asian market, capturing large-capacity markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Through long-term accumulation, it has built sufficient confidence and risk resistance to face more complex and higher-threshold markets in the future.

This was fully demonstrated when OPPO entered the European market. Europe is different from Southeast Asia, with generally higher thresholds and standards. Drawing on the development ideas explored in the Southeast Asian market, OPPO first developed "central countries" such as France and Italy as anchors and then steadily advanced to surrounding countries, thereby establishing a firm foothold.

In the view of Jiedian Caijing, OPPO's successful experience in going overseas lies in being pragmatic and adaptable to the market environment of different countries, achieving continuous adaptation and innovation. Only by taking root in markets with different cultural backgrounds can a company truly possess the ability to globalize.

Currently, OPPO has set its sights on Latin America, which is regarded as a high-potential market. This is also an excellent choice for OPPO to leverage its global experience, expand revenue sources, and enhance brand influence. With the global mobile phone market heading towards stock competition, how can OPPO reach new heights?

2. Premiumization is the only way forward; are Apple and Samsung not ambitious?

First, we need to recognize the development trend of the global smartphone market. According to multiple market research institutions such as Counterpoint and Canalys, global smartphone shipments are expected to exceed 1.2 billion units in 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 5%, ending two consecutive years of decline.

Among them, the strongest growth momentum is in the premium market. From 2018 to 2023, the compound annual growth rate of the market segment priced above $600 reached 6%, far exceeding the overall market level.

Therefore, to carve out a niche in the global mobile phone market, it is essential to capture the premium market. For domestic mobile phone brands, it is even more important to abandon the previous price wars and commit to providing high-quality products and services with high added value.

OPPO has a clear understanding of this point, and the current global mobile phone market also presents OPPO with an excellent opportunity to overtake. Jiedian Caijing observed that Samsung and Apple, currently ranking first and second in market share, are somewhat arrogant. Their iterative models adopt a toothpaste-squeezing upgrade strategy from product design to core configuration, lacking ambition. For example, the September launch of Apple's iPhone 16 series was dubbed "the most boring ever" due to a lack of innovation and was widely criticized by users.

This also gives OPPO a better opportunity. In the current market share, OPPO's position in the global premium mobile phone market is also rapidly rising.

According to Canalys data, in the second quarter of 2024, OPPO ranked among the top three in the high-price segment market above $500 in 14 countries. As OPPO's premium product line, the Find X series saw a 98% year-on-year increase in shipments compared to the previous generation in the first half of 2024, with performance continuing to rise.

Taking the Mexican market as an example, OPPO ranked fourth in mobile phone market share in the second quarter of this year, close to Apple's iPhone market share. In the first half of the year, its average selling price reached $345 (approximately RMB 2,500), making it the highest average selling price among all mobile phone brands in Mexico, excluding Apple.

In fact, OPPO's rise in the premium mobile phone market did not happen overnight. It was not until after OPPO entered the European market and captured markets in developed European countries such as Portugal and Belgium after 2018 that it gradually established its brand in the global premium mobile phone market.

As we all know, although Chinese mobile phone brands have always firmly held the largest share of the global smartphone market, their influence in the premium market is still not strong enough. OPPO's success means that domestic brands now have an additional successful experience to draw upon.

However, competition in the global premium mobile phone market is extremely fierce. In which aspects will OPPO focus its efforts to gain a firm foothold and make further progress in the future?

3. Pave the way with technological innovation; how far can we go in the future?

Judging from the current situation, AI has become a key breakthrough area that OPPO places great hopes on. Of course, it's not just OPPO; other brands also attach great importance to AI technology. Who will emerge victorious in the end depends on both strength and determination.

At the beginning of 2024, OPPO became the first domestic mobile phone brand to announce AI as its core strategy and released the first AI phone applying a 7 billion-parameter large model on the end side. It is not difficult to feel that OPPO is very determined in the direction of AI, almost achieving an all-in approach.

An IT communications expert told Jiedian Caijing that in recent years, the development of mobile phone technology has entered a bottleneck period, and the emergence of AI technology is a breakthrough point that will become the next battlefield for brand competition.

OPPO's technological innovation is not only reflected in AI. Since other brands are also working on it, its efforts in detail deserve more attention. Jiedian Caijing observed that in the global mobile phone market, especially in the premium market, consumers are increasingly willing to spend more money on high-quality devices that can be used for a long time, and the premium quality of a product is often reflected in the details.

Whoever does a better job in details and better meets consumers' pursuit of high quality will be able to make breakthroughs in the competition in the stock market.

OPPO's experience with the small foldable phone Find N2 Flip is a good proof of this. This premium phone adopts a vertically large external screen, which is more practical than Samsung's, and is equipped with OPPO's self-developed and more innovative hinge technology. When unfolded, users can barely see any creases, providing a completely different experience despite both being foldable screens. Therefore, the market performance of this product has been very good.

Of course, behind high-quality innovation lies the company's solid R&D capabilities. In 2023, OPPO ranked fourth in China and ninth globally in terms of global patent applications, meaning that OPPO has been among the top ten globally for five consecutive years. Among all its patent applications, invention patents accounted for up to 91%.

In the future, the globalization of Chinese brands is an inevitable trend, and technological innovation will determine how far a brand can go. OPPO started in Southeast Asia, made breakthroughs in Europe, and is now conquering the "high-potential market" of Latin America. Its step-by-step approach and continuous premium breakthroughs have been proven. It remains to be seen how much imagination OPPO still has.