Who is BBK Group: the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer?
If we begin to talk about its origin then BBK is a Chinese company that used to make products related to music and audios. Moreover, they started with educational platforms but it did not work out.
Oppo redefines itself and stars their music industry with a full swing in the market. In the beginning, they made all the products related to music such as DVDs, headphones, speakers, etc.
BBK Group is the part of the global smartphone market, which Counterpoint and highlights the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer. It stayed at this level by reaching 380 million units in their shipments. BBK has the stronger demand in India and China during the years and it helped the global smartphone market to halt the streak of year-on-year increase.
Who is BBK Group?
Headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong, China BBK Group has reinforced its India plans and roots in India. First by introducing a disruptive range of new, Oppo model – Realme smartphones in the very exclusive price segment and secondly Xiaomi has always been a dominant force for BBK Group.
BBK Group is a Chinese multinational corporation that owns a place in the Mobile phone market and several popular brands across various consumer electronics markets. Their business includes headphones, Blu-ray players, and smartphones. BBK Group owns two major smartphone brands and one fan-favorite brand Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus.
Chinese company dominates the Indian smartphone market
Chinese smartphone maker BBK Electronics Group, or Guangzhou Bu Bu Gao Electronics, which sells under different brands under the brand name of Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus and Realme(a new brand), has the largest share in the Indian smartphone market. These all brands put together now controls over 40 percent of the smartphone market as compared to just over 20 percent a year ago.
According to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, BBK Electronics now holds nearly 40 percent share of the Indian smartphone market, much ahead of another Chinese player Xiaomi’s (27 percent share) and South Korea’s Samsung (19 percent share).
BBK Electronics Strategy with Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme
BBK companies have the strategy to get marketing for all the brands and they are betting huge on India with massive investments such as brand name Oppo on all the IPL dresses. Mass brands like Vivo and OPPO are spending huge amounts of money on advertising and creating visibility for every Indian.
For example, their biggest advertisement of all time is they bagged title rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) from the year 2018 to 2022 for Rs. 2,199 crore. This investment plans to invest nearly Rs. 3,500 crore more to expand its manufacturing capacity in India.
Similarly, Oppo is expanding its wider brand name by the smartphone manufacturing unit in India itself to double the production capacity by the year 2020. By spreading its name across multiple brands, BBK Group has managed to tailor its products that suit various market segments and trends. This strategy has clearly paid off well in China and looking forward to work in Western markets and remains to be seen big smartphone company.
In India, BBK is emerging as its biggest market by contributing to nearly one-third of its revenues in the form of OnePlus as it includes the high-end range smartphone which is mid-range.
They announced the investment of Rs. 1,000 crore in a new research and development (R&D) center, which is in Hyderabad. Their other strategy is to expand its Noida plant to export its current models to the United States and European Union markets from the Indian market. By doing this they can get into the worldwide market with the help of the Indian market.
Are all the brands the same?
No, they are not in the same segment and they are from BBK Group.
They are in the same business – Mobile devices as (Major), but their target segment is different in the market.
- Vivo – Entry range smartphones in the market
- Oppo – Mid-range smartphones in the market
- Oneplus – High-end smartphones in the market
The barrier between the entry-level and mid-level devices is thin and the high end is very popular. That is why Vivo and Oppo are competing with each other in the same market segment, as they both are part of the BBK Group. They help to offer choices in the market and capture the market attention for android phones easily.
It also avoids brand dilution, as they all were part of the same company. If OnePlus makes devices in the entry range, then it will lose its premium position as it is costly then both oppo and Vivo. Therefore, it makes sense in existing as different brands in the same product category under the same company.
Conclusion
BBK Electronics Group of China is the number one smartphone selling brand, which is emerging and expanding worldwide. BBK group is the name most of the people don’t even know but their brands are famous in every aspect, people usually know its brand name rather than company name as BBK Group.
Oppo and Vivo play in mid-range for now. They have a business model that runs on excessive advertising. We even call it a Push Marketing strategy. One Plus is now playing under the premium smartphone category whereas Realme another brand by Oppo is still in the budget range. They have a different business model altogether that runs on minimal marketing and changed the name as Realme , to gain the new fame in the technology market. We even call it a Pull Marketing strategy under the same brand but a different name.
BBK Electronics grew 27 percent (year-on-year) in India in 2018, positioning itself in third place after Xiaomi and Samsung, before becoming the top vendor with a four-brand strategy this year. BBK Group in today’s market scenario is collectively the world’s third-largest manufacturer or even bigger than other smartphone names in terms of its volume.
