Dialing World for Success in 5G

14 | Monday, March 18, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY BUSINESS Chinese Dialing world for success in 5G era sports brands seek Belt & Road Initiative | Oppo’s expansion global play speeds up with its FUZHOU — In the Chinese city of handsets that boast Quanzhou, East China’s Fujian prov cuttingedge tech ince, workers at a garment factory of Kelme are busy stitching and ironing the white and blue jerseys of the Spanish football club Espanyol. Their goal is to meet the soaring By MA SI domestic demand boosted by Wu Lei, [email protected] a Chinese striker who joined the club a month ago. Wu made history by Chinese smartphone maker becoming the first Chinese player to Oppo is making a strong push into score in a La Liga match on March 2, overseas markets, after it strength sending his fans into a frenzy. ened its position as the secondlarg “Over the last month, we have sold est player on its home turf. over 10,000 Wu Lei jerseys,” said Ke The Guangdongbased company Yongyuan, president of Kelme (Chi believes that its 10 years of experi na), who owns the Yuanxiang gar ence in exploring foreign countries, ment company in the sportswear and its growing pool of patents and manufacturing hub. international talent, will help it to Prior to Wu’s debut in Europe, go global in a better way. Yuanxiang acquired 80 percent of Kel Two days ahead of the Feb 2528 me’s shares and became the control Mobile World Congress Barcelona, ling shareholder of the renowned the largest annual telecommunica international brand. Yuanxiang’s tions gathering in Spain, Oppo expansion offers a glimpse into Chi unveiled its first 5G smartphone nese manufacturers’ endeavor of and announced that four foreign going global. telecom carriers are to be among “We manage the international the first to sell the 5G model. brand with a Chinese ‘engine’,” said Oppo said its 5G handset will use Ke, adding that Wu’s takeoff in Spain the United States semiconductor is a “happy surprise” as his sparkling giant Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon performance draws increasing world 855 chipset and X50 modem to wide attention. latch onto 5G networks. Kelme, founded in 1963, is the offi Four carriers — Swisscom, Aus cial sponsor of a number of Spanish tralia’s Telstra and Optus, and Sing La Liga clubs such as Espanyol and Tel of Singapore — will sell the as Real Valladolid. In its heyday in the yet unnamed 5G Oppo phone first, Attendees take photographs of an Oppo 5G smartphone model at a launch event ahead of the last month’s MWC Barcelona in 1990s, Kelme was the sponsor of Real which is scheduled to be launched Spain. BLOOMBERG Madrid, one of the world’s most suc in the second quarter of this year. cessful football clubs. Shen Yiren, vicepresident of Ke said his factory in Quanzhou Oppo, said the four overseas carri technological advancements as used to make jerseys and hoodies for ers are rolling out the 5G networks 22.2 well as product designs in recent Kappa, Umbro, Fila, and Kelme. How rapidly, so the company chose to percent years. They are now in a relatively ever, the razorthin profits of the origi first sell its 5G smartphones in good position to venture out into nal equipment manufacturer or OEM market share of smartphones Europe. Its partnership with Swiss made by Oppo in Thailand in the advanced battlefields,” Xiang model pushed him to explore ways of com is the fastest. the fourth quarter of 2018, said. building the company’s own brand. It The move marks the latest step which outcompeted Samsung Even as Oppo steps up expansion was searching for a “new engine” to by Oppo to build itself as an innova to become the largest smart in Europe, it has filed over 33,000 tide over the difficulties of shrinking tive brand in Europe, trying to lure phone vendor in the country patent applications worldwide as of overseas orders and rising labor cost. consumers with cuttingedge prod January. “Companies can no longer make a ucts and design. large retail chains and by local tele It has also inked a multiyear name for themselves by bombarding This is also proof of the compa com operators. global patent license agreement consumers with advertisements. ny’s determination to conquer Also, European consumers are with Swedish telecom equipment Besides, it was way too expensive. We more developed markets after its different from their Chinese coun giant Ericsson. Under the deal, the thought buying big international products became available in more terparts in terms of product prefer two sides will also collaborate on a brands might be a ‘shortcut’, so we than 40 countries and regions. ences. For instance, European number of business projects. started as their brand franchisor in In June 2018, Oppo launched its consumers are not big fans of beau The deal is the latest in a series of China,” said Liu Zejun, chief market highend smartphone model Find tifying photos. As a result, the com patent license agreements with key ing officer of Kelme (China). X in Paris, marking its official foray A worker holds an Oppo F1S smartphone at an Oppo smartphone pany has to work hard to localize its industry partners such as Qual In 2014, Kelme sold its franchises in into Europe. As of January, it had factory in Tangerang, Indonesia. REUTERS VIA GETTY IMAGES products. comm, Dolby and Nokia. This strat China to Ke’s firm. The fast expansion entered nine European markets, Although Oppo is a wellknown egy is expected to clear the patent of the Kelme brand in China led to a including Italy, Spain, and the Unit brand among European telecom obstacles for Oppo to better serve further deal between Yuanxiang and ed Kingdom. International Data Corp or IDC. Oppo outcompeted Samsung to industry professionals, awareness global consumers in the 5G era, said Kelme. In 2018, the Chinese company Wu Qiang, who is in charge of Though Oppo outgrew the indus become the largest smartphone about it among the consumers is Fu Liang, an independent telecom acquired controlling shares in the Oppo’s overseas business, said the try average to achieve an annual vendor in Thailand with a market not high. analyst. Spanish sportswear company for 300 company is not adopting an aggres expansion rate of 1.5 percent in that share of 22.2 percent, growing “It takes time to build a brand, “Talent is what we are in dire million yuan ($44.68 million). sive strategy in overseas markets. timeframe, there is still a pressing about 70 percent yearonyear, with careful consideration needed need of, to explore overseas mar However, buying foreign brands is Instead, it strictly follows CEO need to look for new opportunities, according to the market research to decide what forms of marketing ket,” Wu said. only a step in Chinese companies’ Chen Mingyong’s principle of “eat Wu said. company Canalys. and product communications are Oppo aims to have 90 percent of transition toward going global. “We ing rice bite by bite”. “About 100 million units of hand Its products and services are also appropriate. We are working hard its Europebased staff sourced from don’t want to be the Chinese Nike, but “We will only enter the next mar sets are sold in Europe every year. well received in other South Asian to know the specific characteristics the local talent pool, so as to better the world’s Anta,” said Ding Shizhong, ket after doing a good job in exist We must build a presence there.” and Southeast Asian countries, of each market,” Wu said. tap into the design and art scholars chairman and CEO of Anta. The com ing markets,” Wu said. Other Chinese smartphone mak including India, and African coun Xiang Ligang, directorgeneral of from local universities. pany considered design and scientific Oppo’s intensified interest in for ers , including Huawei, Xiaomi and tries such as Kenya. the Information Consumption Alli The company said it currently research as the key to improving the eign countries came after the Chi Vivo, are also looking beyond their In 2018, Oppo shipped 113 mil ance, said if Chinese smartphone has over 40,000 employees globally, brand’s value. nese smartphone market hit a home turf for growth. In this con lion units of smartphones world makers want to truly grow into with 10 manufacturing facilities Alongside overseas acquisitions, saturation point, with shipments text, Oppo believes it has an edge wide, garnering a global market global brands, they cannot just stay and six research institutes across Chinese enterprises have been seek declining for several quarters. over others as it first started its share of more than 8 percent, in China or Southeast Asia or Afri the world. ing new “growth engines” through From September to December of international journey as early as in according to IDC data. ca. They need to establish a pres Its mobile operating system Col the robotic revolution, industrial 2018, smartphone shipments in 2009 in Thailand, much before oth But Wu admitted that it is not ence in more advanced markets orOS commands 250 million users innovation, and green development, China plunged almost 10 percent ers jumped on the goingglobal easy to crack open the hard nut of such as Japan, Europe and the Unit worldwide. To expand its reach, according to Ke. yearonyear, according to data bandwagon. European smartphone market ed States. Oppo has also set up over 400,000 from market research company In the fourth quarter of 2018, where most handsets are sold in “They had made significant points of sale worldwide.

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