Yiplus Li Jie: Will not change the brand tone in order to pursue sales

Source: Sina Technology

Author: Zhang Jun

Li Jie, President of OnePlus China

Six months after the merger with OPPO, Liu Zuohu, founder of OnePlus, recently announced that Li Jie, the former head of oppo China user operations, will serve as the president of OnePlus China and be fully responsible for the Business in China.

During oppo, Li Jie successfully created the Find7 flagship and the R series with a single model sales of more than 20 million units. After being responsible for oneplus' business in China, it will also shoulder the goal of one plus's previously announced external sales of tens of millions in the Chinese market in three years.

Li Jie said in an interview with the media a few days ago that after the integration with OPPO, OnePlus is still an independent brand and will not sacrifice the foundation and tone of the original brand. At the same time, OnePlus will also share OPPO's supply chain, technology, channels, after-sales and other resources, and the two brands will develop together.

He revealed that in the future, OnePlus will only do the high-end flagship mobile phone route with excellent stacking and performance in all aspects such as appearance, image, charging, and game performance, and will also add a mid-range product line for consumers who pursue performance and game experience for different consumption capabilities, which are currently being planned.

But he stressed that OnePlus is not a pure game phone, and at the same time, it will not do low-end, poor performance, and poor user experience in order to pursue the scale of data such as sales, and will not do products below 2,000 yuan.

How will OnePlus be positioned after the integration with OPPO?

In June 2021, OnePlus officially announced its merger with OPPO.

Li Jie's appointment as president of OnePlus China is the latest progress in the integration of the two sides. According to the data, Li Jie joined OPPO in 2010 and has been responsible for Find series product planning, product roadmap planning, hardware strategic planning, and OPPO China strategic planning and product roadmap since 2013. Since September 2021, Li Jie has also served as the head of user operations of OPPO China.

In the 11 years of oppo's work, Li Jie has successfully created explosive products such as the Find7 flagship and the R series with a single model sales of more than 20 million units. His joining will help oneplus china to upgrade its product strength, channels, supply chain and after-sales service in an all-round way.

In the interview, Li Jie said that after the integration of OnePlus and OPPO, the original pursuit of the ultimate experience of the product concept, the emphasis on users, the pursuit of brand tonality, etc. will not change, OnePlus is still an independent brand.

What has changed is that OnePlus can share OPPO's many resources.

The first is the supply chain. Oppo's global shipments in 2021 are about 200 million units, behind which it has received sufficient support in the supply chain, and these supports can also be obtained after one plus joins, such as the demand for device customization.

The second is technology. OPPO Research Institute, more than 10,000 engineers, including Mariana (self-developed chip) has invested in technology and future long-term research and development, is also a resource that OnePlus can use. In the future, the technical route of Oujia, such as gaming, charging, and performance tuning, can be better supported by OnePlus.

Again, the channel, OPPO's channel will empower and bless OnePlus, but OnePlus will not completely copy OPPO's channel 1:1. For the IT systems, information tools, customer management tools and systems required for control channels, OnePlus can selectively reuse them.

Finally, after-sales, OPPO's after-sales outlets have covered most of the country, and this after-sales system has gradually been opened to OnePlus. At the recent one-plus 10 Pro conference, Liu Zuohu, founder of OnePlus, announced that nearly 1,000 OPPO after-sales outlets across the country have been officially opened to OnePlus users, and the outlets cover more than 90% of the prefecture-level cities in the country.

In addition to sharing resources, a problem that also makes the outside world pay attention is that OnePlus originally positioned high-end, and the current OPPO is also working on high-end, how to position the two brands?

Li Jie said that the Chinese market is very large, and the two brands of OnePlus and OPPO will also take the customer groups and brand styles of different markets as the starting point to make a distinction in appearance, selection, products and other aspects.

OPPO's Find series focuses on the "new knowledge youth" group, that is, the "white-collar workers in office buildings". This part of the customer group has the need for taking photos and business. Therefore, the Find series needs greater investment and support in the application of scientific and technological sense, business functions, including imaging. This part of the technical line produces related first-time technologies, and may give priority to oppo-based.

The original users of OnePlus are a considerable number of people who pursue performance and are partial to technology enthusiasts. The future focus of the OnePlus series is "young people who love to play games and chase performance". Based on this positioning, the appearance, gaming experience, performance optimization, and charging experience of OnePlus products will have the brand's own characteristics and expertise.

The mid-tier product line of the game scene is being planned without sacrificing experience for scale

In 2021, OnePlus has proposed a three-year goal of reaching tens of millions of sales in the Chinese market.

Li Jie said that this goal in China remains unchanged. In 2021, OnePlus's global sales volume was 12 million, twice that of the previous year, of which China accounted for more than 20%, and in 2021, China sales also increased by 80-90%.

However, he stressed that in the future, In order to pursue the scale of data such as sales, OnePlus will not do particularly low-end, poor performance, resulting in poor user experience products, and the route of "OnePlus production must be boutique" will not change. OnePlus's current plan is that it will not do products below 2,000 yuan, but will do products in the price range of 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan. But even at this price point, the product will definitely be an excellent product that meets high-level requirements in terms of chip, screen selection, user experience, etc.

In his view, the more the stock market, the more we must consider the type of segmented population, and the future Chinese market will be a segmented market for users. For example, games, China has about 700 million game users, it is impossible to use the same brand of products, OnePlus has OPPO research institute technology bonus, but also has the League of Legends and Peace Elite two top game IP resources and certifications. Whether it's technology, supply chains or markets, they're big enough. This part of the user in the stock market, OnePlus has the opportunity to grasp.

The game label has already been reflected on the just-released OnePlus 10 Pro. The HyperBoost full-link game frame stabilization technology was launched for the first time, and it became the designated machine for the two major events of the 2022 League of Legends Mobile Game Pro League and the 2022 PEL Peace Elite Pro League.

In addition, Li Jie revealed that in addition to the route of high-end flagship mobile phones, OnePlus will also add a mid-range product line for consumers with different consumption capabilities, product performance and game experience, but its workmanship, texture, and product experience will still reach the high standards of OnePlus, and the specific goal is still in planning.

But he pointed out that OnePlus will not make a particularly niche pure gaming phone. Nowadays, games are very important in user life scenarios, occupying a certain number of people and using time. Once this is added as the entry point, it is positioned as a performance flagship with a particularly good gaming experience, rather than a pure gaming phone.

Overall, after the integration of OnePlus and OPPO, OnePlus's all-round flagship and high-end experience series will continue to be maintained, and the experience and texture of OnePlus' advantages such as image and Hasselblad experience will not be sacrificed, and a performance and game label will be added on this basis; in addition to the high-end flagship, OnePlus may also have a series to make a bolder attempt on the game to make the style more distinct.

"We don't think the game scene is niche, there are 700 million game users in China, the number of League of Legends and Peace Elite users is very large, and this market is very large." Li Jie said that on the basis of continuing to maintain the performance experience positioning, OnePlus puts performance into the game scene as a carrier, fully integrates the software and hardware technology of the Euroga system, and believes that there is an opportunity to make different products and experiences.