Xiaomi is struggling, but a smaller Chinese rival is booming

Xiaomi, China’s most talked about phone brand, is going through a rough patch. After a rocket-ship ride since its first smartphone came out in 2011, the past year saw the giant startup miss its sales target and then fall short on another important metric as well.

Although it’s still in the top five global smartphone makers, growth slowed dramatically as Xiaomi’s overseas expansion stalled and rival brands – particularly Chinese giants like Huawei and Lenovo – fought harder for China’s massive market for budget phones.

But not every young Chinese brand had such a bad time in 2015. One that you might have forgotten – or never even heard of – had a stellar year. Oppo. It sold 50 million phones last year, the company states, which is a lot more than the approximate 30 million it got rid of the year prior.

Breaking in to the big league

That puts Oppo just behind Korea’s LG, which sold 59.7 million smartphones in 2015. LG is the world’s sixth biggest smartphone brand, IDC said yesterday. But whereas LG’s numbers stagnated, Oppo boomed, seeing 67 percent year-on-year growth.

The Oppo N3 with its flippable camera helped boost Oppo’s sales throughout 2015.

Oppo – which came out with its first phone in 2008 – has done this by pushing into new markets a lot faster than Xiaomi with its budget and mid-range smartphones. First it went after fast-growing developing nations like Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Then it launched in India at the start of 2014, getting in ahead of Xiaomi. More recently it tackled tougher markets, including a launch in Australia.

An Oppo representative declined to provide a break-down of where those 50 million sales happened.

While Xiaomi is an attractive prey for any competitor, its US$45 billion valuation glinting in the distance like a huge target, Oppo operates more like a conventional phone brand than the well-funded startup. That may be due to its roots in manufacturing accessories, which started years before the smartphone boom. So while Xiaomi mostly only sells gadgets online, Oppo has its own stores and distributors, and it aims to be very visible in markets where it has launched, doing things like sponsoring cricket events and football teams.

Oppo operates a lot like Huawei. And Huawei seems to be the target it’s aiming at.