Fierce battle for the mobile phone stock market: After the merger of OnePlus into OPPO, the channel technology is diversified and integrated, and the crowd is subdivided

Photo: Xinhua

Source: 21tech

Author: Luo Yiqi

Editor: Zhang Weixian

Since the high point of 2017, China's mobile phone industry has entered the stock market for many years. Under the Matthew effect, the head of the factory is beginning to fiercely "street battles".

One of the manifestations is that major brands are focusing on the layout of subdivided user groups, and the effect is gradually emerging.

In 2021, OnePlus, which has been independent for many years, announced its return to OPPO. During the oneplus 10 Pro conference held on the afternoon of January 11, Liu Zuohu, founder of OnePlus, said that in 2021, the global mobile phone shipments of OnePlus exceeded 10 million units for the first time, "As a mobile phone brand focusing on the high-end market, breaking through 10 million sales is also a small goal." ”

In the history of the previous nine years of development, OnePlus has focused on the "geek" crowd that prefers the experience of technology performance. With the return to the domestic market, it is also gradually moving towards a more popular consumer group.

Li Jie, president of OnePlus China, said in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald and other media that in addition to the high-end flagship series that are currently focused on, OnePlus is planning to refine and add a mid-range product line for consumers who pursue performance and game experience. However, he stressed that OnePlus will not do pure gaming phones.

The reason is related to the stage of development of the industry. Li Jie believes that the current mobile phone industry is already in the middle and late stage of the life cycle, during which there are several characteristics: one is to pursue more efficient products; the second is experience is king; and the third is to seek market segmentation and differentiation. Among them, OnePlus is more optimistic about the experience brought by the game track.

With the completion of the merger with OPPO, the two have fully integrated in the supply chain, technology, channels, after-sales service, and talent flow. "I'm a representative of mobility myself, we have a bigger base, and then it's up to the team to see what and how the team's user-based strategy, plans, and actions are." He continued.

Segmentation

At its peak, there were 470 million units per year in the domestic smartphone market, but now only 300 million units a year. Entering the mature stage of the mobile phone market, the competitive environment has been very different.

Li Jie analyzed that the domestic consumer goods market has experienced an era in which channels are king and traffic is king to the current era when users are king. From the perspective of price performance, the mobile phone market currently has high-end, the proportion of cost-effective ends is larger, and the middle share is smaller, similar to the development trend of "spindle body".

Specifically, he believes that the mobile phone market will eventually move towards high-end, and the current market share of mobile phones in the price segment of more than 2,000 yuan has reached 60%, and there is a continued upward trend. The real shrinking market is mainly in the low-end models. At the same time, with the average replacement cycle of more than 24 months, there is also a growth trend, whether it is a high-end machine or a low-cost consumer, they all hope that the quality of the mobile phone will be better.

Therefore, Li Jie said that OnePlus's plan is that the original definition of high-end flagships has not changed, and in the process of moving to the mass market, it will not enter the product market within 2,000 yuan, but will enter the price range of 2,000-3,000 yuan. And even at this price point, it will also hope to reach a high level in terms of chips, screens, user experience, etc.

"Under this industry trend, the ultimate thing to do to sell is to pay attention to users and operate users." Based on the idea of one plus target users to operate, gradually expand the user base. He pointed out that the more you are in the stock market, the more you must consider the type of segmentation. For example, there are about 700 million game users in China, and it is impossible to use the same brand or product, while the Oujia Group has a research institute technology bonus, and has the resources and certifications of the two core game IP of League of Legends and Peace Elite. "Whether it is technology, supply chain or market is large enough, for this part of the stock market, there is an opportunity to grasp."

This is also consistently reflected in the new machines released by OnePlus. According to reports, in addition to the main hardware parameters to maintain a consistent style, OnePlus 10 Pro debuted HyperBoost full-link game frame stabilization technology, through the graphics heterogeneous, GPA limit frame stabilization, O-Sync overclocking response three core technologies, to solve the game experience problem. The three storage configuration price segments are in the range of 4699-5299 yuan.

Fully integrated

Around May 2021, OnePlus announced that it would set a sales target of more than 10 million yuan for the domestic market in the three years since then. According to reports, in 2021, the overall global sales volume of OnePlus is 12 million units, of which the Chinese market accounts for more than 20%, with an annual growth rate of 80%-90%. Therefore, Li Jie pointed out that there is no change in the goals of the Chinese market, and the integration with OPPO can accelerate the synergy of capabilities between the two.

Li Jie said that the benefits brought to OnePlus after integration with OPPO include supply chain, technology, channels, and after-sales services.

"At present, the mobile phone industry is very concentrated, and in 2021, the Total Shipment Volume of the Oujia Group will have 200 million units, so that we have received sufficient support from the supply chain, whether it is technology, device customization or supply security. Otherwise, if the volume of OnePlus alone is not enough to support the greater development of the brand at the supply chain level. ”

In terms of technology, the resources that OnePlus can use will include the Mariana self-developed chip recently released by OPPO, including the OGA Group's current tuning in games, charging, performance and other aspects, both of which can have better mutual support. It should be said that the technical support that more than 10,000 engineers of the Oujia Group can provide will be much more than the previous one-plus independent operation.

"This year is the second year of cooperation between OnePlus and Hasselblad, and there is continuous and in-depth cooperation." He told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that with the advancement of time, the image style of OnePlus and Hasselblad has many adjustments. Since OnePlus and OPPO can currently share technology and suppliers, whether OPPO may adopt Hasselblad's related technical capabilities in the future is a matter for OPPO's own product line.

Previously, OnePlus's channel capabilities focused on online, and after integration with OPPO, there were new gains in channels and after-sales systems.

However, Li Jie said that OnePlus will not completely copy OPPO's channels 1:1. Because the user population is different, it will be selectively reused. "For example, the IT systems, information tools, customer management tools and systems required for the control of channels, which makes one plus have a better blessing for the benefits and cost control of the channel, and does not rule out the emergence of one plus products in some OPPO stores in the future."

"I hope that the channels and efficiency of OnePlus are very high, that is to say, the shorter the distance between the information flow and logistics of the enterprise and the user, the better, and the shorter the link from the information flow to the user to generate purchases and conversions, the better." He pointed out that based on this, the original online channel part, Jingdong, Tmall and other traditional online channels will continue, the new Douyin, Kuaishou is not only a source of content generation, but also a closed loop that can generate transactions. On this basis, the construction of back-end capital flow, logistics, and other system support, which is no longer the traditional sense of offline store opening.

Of course, the control of online and offline channel contacts or marketing touchpoints will remain at oneplug headquarters to ensure that the online and offline display from price to experience to the overall display is consistent.

For channel construction, OnePlus is still in the process of gradually advancing. Li Jie said that he hopes that starting from Q2 this year, the idea of channels can have a basic prototype and operate, gradually optimize, reach the expected state in Q3 and Q4 this year, and plan products based on user insights next year to ensure that the team can achieve good results next year.

As for the after-sales part, "OPPO does not have outsourced after-sales, because after-sales is a very important part of the user experience." He continued that OPPO has nearly 1,000 after-sales outlets across the country, which are now officially open to OnePlus users, and the outlets cover more than 90% of the prefecture-level cities in the country.

In general, OnePlus has achieved a large foundation for development in overseas markets, and is still in the process of rapid penetration in China, so its popular Nord series in overseas markets has achieved good results, and domestic ones still need certain precipitation and user pain point observation.

Li Jie admitted to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the brand, potential energy and market influence of OnePlus in overseas markets, as well as its share in the local area, are slightly stronger than in China. When the overall brand potential is covered downwards, the resources available to the product will be more advantageous. And in the past, OnePlus had more resources overseas, so there was more accumulation of understanding and insight into localized users.

In contrast, in China, "there are some places that are not good enough and need to be improved." For example, our communication methods based on the target group of people, and the channels and other expressions are not clear enough, these problems are the problems I want to solve next. He pointed out.

Counterpoint senior analyst Lin Keyu analyzed to reporters that in 2021, OPPO is still experiencing adjustments to its own internal and one-plus sub-brands. "In fact, last year OPPO was doing integration actions, including personnel adjustment, product line rearrangement, etc., it can be said that 2021 is a year for OPPO to re-rest and start again." With the release of Mariana's self-developed chip and folding screen mobile phone, it means that OPPO will start a new sprint in 2022. ”

Editor: Lu Taoran