China’s Oppo partners with Vodafone for bigger European push

Huawei is facing an uphill challenge in the overseas market as its upcoming devices lack the full set of Google apps and services. That leaves ample room for its Chinese rivals to chase after foreign consumers.

That includes Oppo, the sister brand of Vivo under Dongguan-based electronics holding company BBK. In an announcement on Monday, the Chinese firm announced a partnership with Vodafone to bring its smartphones to the mobile carrier's European markets. The deal kicks off in May and will sell Oppo's portfolio of advanced 5G handsets as well as value-for-money models into the U.K, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Turkey.

While Vodafone pulled Huawei phones from its U.K. 5G network last year following the U.S. export ban that stripped Huawei models of certain Android services, the British operator can now tap Oppo's wide range of mobile products in a heated race to sign up 5G customers. The partners will jointly explore online sales channels as many parts of Europe's physical premises remain closed due to the COVID-19.

Oppo, currently the second-largest smartphone vendor in its home country after Huawei, has seen a spike in sales across Europe since entering the market in mid-2018. The company was one of the first to launch commercially available 5G phones in Europe last year and now ranks fifth on the continent with a 2% share, according to a survey from research firm Canalys.

Oppo has a product range that can hit many of the same segments as Huawei, enabling it to gain market share at the expense of Huawei," Peter Richardson, research director at Counterpoint Research, explained to TechCrunch. Oppo has always used quite a European flavour in its product design. This extends to things like colour choice, packaging, and advertising materials. This makes it acceptable to European consumers."

Interestingly, Richardson pointed out that Oppo, which has a less Chinese sounding" name than its domestic rivals Xiaomi and Huawei, will help it circumvent some of the negative media surrounding China just now - first Huawei's difficulties around security threats and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic."

The article was updated on May 18, 2020 to reflect an updated statement from Oppo that Italy is not on the list of markets it targets under the Vodafone distribution partnership.