OPPO Chen Mingyong vivo Shen Shen de "anti-Internet thinking"

The picture of Chutianjin News is: Duan Yongping

Pictured: Chen Mingyong

After the New Year, the new machine, in recent years, the mobile phone has also joined the ranks of "new year".

Yesterday, market research firm TrendForce reported that in 2015, global smartphone shipments were 1.293 billion units, an increase of 10.3%, while domestic mobile phones accounted for 7 of the top ten manufacturers, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo. TCL, OPPO, vivo, ZTE.

Among them, OPPO shipped 50 million units, and vivo shipments exceeded 40 million units. The reason why these two brands are put together is because they actually have the same origin: BBK (11.20, 0.44, 4.09%); the same link: Duan Yongping, chairman of BBK; similar positioning: young fashion. The industry has begun to use "Hua Miuwei" (ie Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo) to describe the new pattern of domestic mobile phones.

There is no such hot Internet thinking as Xiaomi, and there is no technical accumulation of Huawei's communication giants for many years. Why is OPPO and vivo going out of the white-hot battlefield?

"Boss" Duan Yongping:

Specially selected "chicken ribs" succeeded in succession

Let me talk about Duan Yongping first. The "small bully" he created in his hand was a childhood mark of countless 80s.

In 1977, 16-year-old Duan Yongping was admitted to the radio department of Zhejiang University from Jiangxi University. After graduation, he was assigned to the Beijing Electronic Tube Factory. But he suddenly dropped his major and studied for graduate students in the economics department of Renmin University of China.

In 1989, Duan Yongping once again changed track and went to Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, and became the director of a small factory under the Yihua Group. There were only a dozen people and a loss of 2 million yuan.

When someone else assembles something when it is sold, he is determined to create a brand. First, give home TV game machine the name "Little Overlord", and control the quality, build after-sales service and distribution network. Three years later, this small factory has a production value of 100 million yuan and was renamed Zhongshan Xiaobawang Electronic Industry Co., Ltd.

In 1995, the output value of the bully exceeded 1 billion. However, Yihua Group is a collective enterprise, and Duan Yongping is still a wealthy worker. In the absence of a joint-stock reform, on August 28, 1995, 34-year-old Duan Yongping resigned and began to build "step by step" in Dongguan, next to Zhongshan.

Many of the "old people" of the bully have followed Duan Yongping. Chen Mingyong, who is now at the helm of the OPPO mobile phone, is the younger brother of Duan Yongping. The 92nd student of the Department of Information and Communication of Zhejiang University is responsible for VCD and DVD business in BBK. Shen Wei, the founder of vivo mobile phone, also started his business with Duan Yongping during the "Little Overlord" period. Communication technology business.

With the "cordless phone", BBK entered the market and became the "Baowang" of CCTV twice. Its computer learning machine and repeater...the sales volume is also rising all the way. At that time, the field in which BBK was involved was basically the "chicken rib" that big brands disdain to do, but made the chicken ribs a delicious.

In 2001, Duan Yongping spent 30 million yuan to register OPPO, and the following year he moved to the United States. After that, Chen Mingyong and Shen Yu successively "independent."

OPPO Chen Mingyong:

Unfavorable "self-portrait" rises

In 2004, OPPO was established and Chen Mingyong became CEO. Chen Mingyong explained: Duan Yongping is not the "big boss behind the scenes" in the US remote control OPPO. He is the chairman of the board, but it is almost the same as his own shares, only about 10%.

The initial OPPO focused on products such as MP3. At the end of 2006, OPPO began to enter the mobile phone industry.

OPPO's market positioning is accurate: the target users are young, not necessarily rich, pursuing fashion, and more women. A female customer recalled her reason for buying OPPO: "The shape is cute, cost-effective, there is no smart machine at that time, it has intelligent input."

In 2009, seeing the iPhone out of the limelight, Chen Mingyong also began to explore the smartphone. In August 2011, OPPO launched the first smart phone, which was actually a slide design. Although it hired Hollywood star Leonardo to endorse for 5 million US dollars, the mobile phone was 16.6 mm thick and weighed 200 grams, which could not be sold.

Inspired by the Casio TR100 (self-portrait artifact) listed in the autumn of 2011, the OPPO team has been researching for half a year and found many demands for self-portraits. Since then, the self-timer mobile phone has been launched, especially for the front camera: the pixel is upgraded from the mainstream of 300,000. For 2 million, adopt automatic face recognition, no big wide angle... This phone is priced at 1998 yuan, compared with the domestic machine of the same price, the configuration is not excellent, but the sales volume exceeded one million.

In October 2013, when the Internet was hot, OPPO also asked experts to make tricks. However, after Chen Mingyong pondered, he thought that OPPO should not overemphasize Internet thinking, but should exert its own advantages. In the following two years, when many mobile phone manufacturers were busy doing e-commerce, OPPO spent a lot of energy to cooperate with dealers to expand more than 50,000 stores across the country to more than 200,000.

Today, these offline channels play a very important role -- if you go to the third and fourth tier cities now, you will find OPPO stores everywhere, where OPPO enjoys the same brand reputation as the iPhone. In 2015, when many domestic mobile phones were struggling to kill on the thousand yuan machine, OPPO got the best sales results at the price of 2000-3000 yuan, and the sales volume through online channels was less than 10% of the total sales volume of less than 50 million units. .

Vivo sinking:

One shot and red paying back

Chen Mingyong builds OPPO, and Shen Wei is responsible for the BBK mobile phone, which is the vivo smartphone on the market.

In November 2011, vivo launched its first product, the X1. "At the time, the sound quality and music in the smartphones have not been satisfactory to consumers, and this is a feature that users use very much. So vivo wants to cut in from Hi-Fi," said Hu Baishan, vice president of vivo.

Therefore, the X1 is equipped with a professional-grade Hi-Fi chip, and the thickness is only 6.55mm, which is the thinnest mobile phone at that time. Since then, the models of the vivo have one or two "burst points", such as the "Extreme Image" of the Xplay series, the "Fast" of the X6 and X6Plus series.

In addition to product differentiation, vivo has invested heavily in marketing. Since 2011, vivo has almost won the title and sponsored all the TV programs with the highest ratings in the country. From Hunan Satellite TV's "Happy Camp", "Everyday", "I am a singer", "Where is Dad", to Jiangsu Satellite TV's "You Are the One", Oriental TV's "China Talent Show", then to Zhejiang Satellite TV's " China's Good Voices, this year, even throws 700 million, and won the exclusive title of "Happy Camp" in the fifth year.

Faced with the question of the high cost of vivo marketing, Feng Lei, vice president and chief marketing officer of vivo, said that vivo only follows the "focus principle", focusing on limited resources to focus marketing on the target group of vivo - 18 years old The 30-year-old young man, of course, the hottest TV variety and the hottest young star is certainly the best choice.

As for the sales channels, vivo has not chosen the Internet, but it is very "traditional" to rely on offline, starting from the third- and fourth-tier cities. Feng Lei said, "We have been working on the online channel for 20 years. Today, we have an absolute advantage in the third, fourth and fifth-line markets. We are not going to grab, but no one is going, we have gone, no opponents, of course. It is the boss. "At present, 95% of vivo products are sold offline, while Tmall and JD.com only account for 5% of online channels.

Today, the main product price of vivo is 2000-3000 yuan. Although the annual shipment of 40 million units is not as good as that of millet, the total profit is quite amazing, unlike many new mobile phone brands.


Surprisingly, Shen Wei did not have a strict KPI assessment system in management. The board of directors meets every year. Although he has issued the indicators, he said, "I will say it, never evaluate." He also rarely confesses specific business to regional channel supervisors everywhere. Because he is convinced that "the area that is well done is often the correct value, and the area that is not doing well is the problem of values." He said, "Who wants to make quick money, vivo is by no means a good destination for him."

OPPO and vivo have nothing to do with

Is a peer and an opponent

Finally, regarding the relationship between OPPO and vivo, Shen Wei explained at a press conference in December 2014: "The two of us have no relationship in fact, and they have developed independently. They are both peers and rivals."

Recalling that Duan Yongping, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Buick, said that since Duan Yongping retired to the United States in 2002, all the operations were no longer questioned. Only twice a year, the board of directors met, and occasionally went to the United States to meet, and the number of meetings was not met in one year. More than 4 times. OPPO CEO Chen Mingyong will also meet on the board of directors, which is the only way for them to contact.

Shen Wei revealed that Duan Yongping is no longer the controlling shareholder of vivo, and management is the biggest shareholder. Although not ready to go public, it has also built a set of benefit-sharing mechanisms that cover most of the people from the grassroots to the top. Every year, a certain percentage of people can get options, thus diluting the shares of Duan Yongping.

(Comprehensive "China Economic Weekly", "Global Entrepreneur", "Chinese Entrepreneur", "Southern Weekend", "Entrepreneur" Report)