A Chinese smartphone brand’s rapid rise in Southeast Asia, India

Image credit: Realme

India and Southeast Asia have emerged as the heated battleground for smartphone makers, especially those from China. Amid such tight competition, it seems unlikely that a new player can get into the game, but budget brand Realme seems to have done exactly that. Starting out of Oppo, Realme was spun-off as an independent company just two months later, in May 2018.

The company’s rise in Oppo strongholds India and Southeast Asia has been meteoric, shipping 10 million phones globally in the first 14 months of its founding. In the first quarter of 2020, Realme became the fastest-growing smartphone brand in Southeast Asia, with 173% year-on-year growth despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Counterpoint Research.

Realme and Oppo as well as Vivo and OnePlus are smartphone brands under the umbrella of China-based multinational BBK Electronics.

BBK Electronics’ structure, explained

In July 2018, Oppo vice president Sky Li Bingzhong spun off Realme and became founder and CEO of the new company.

Like many others in Oppo and Vivo’s management, Li started out at parent firm BBK Electronics in the early 2000s and was among Oppo’s earliest employees.

Having spent five years developing Oppo’s overseas presence from scratch, Li tells Tech in Asia that he saw an opportunity in the smartphone market dominated by players like Samsung and Xiaomi.

He notes that while local ecommerce platforms in India and Southeast Asia offer plenty of affordable options, young people often have difficulty finding a smartphone that ticks all the boxes. Such consumers “are drawn to flashy, stylish phones, but most of them aren’t prepared to spend their money on high-end phones,” Li adds.

To reach the tech-savvy target users, Realme relies mostly on online marketing and sales channels. Moreover, the company’s press events are often held at unconventional venues, such as school campuses and nightclubs.

Because of its focus on young consumers, Realme has a smaller product portfolio across a narrower range of price points.

In 2018, the company launched its first budget phone in India. Called Realme 1, it captured around 14% of the country’s smartphone market in Q1 2020, surpassing Oppo, according to Counterpoint. In Southeast Asia, Realme held 13% of the market in Indonesia and the Philippines during the same period, ranking fifth and third place, respectively.

A leg up