On a fan community page on Chinese social media platform Weibo, hundreds of users have posted comments and pictures, some covered in little red hearts, to express their admiration for a star they affectionately call Kun Kun. “Kun Kun flies bravely, iKun will always follow him; Kun Kun never gets old, and will remain a blue-chip till the end,” some users wrote alongside the picture. “Kun Kun,” whose full name is Zhang Kun, is neither a pop star nor actor. Instead, he is one of China’s most prominent fund managers who oversees around 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in assets at E Fund Management, an established Chinese asset management firm. Zhang’s followers, who label themselves “iKun,” (“i” is a homophone for the Chinese word love), have also created accounts on Weibo posing as his “global fan clubs.” “Kun Kun, I would like to accompany you for many, many years,” a follower wrote. “Let’s witness both the bull and bear markets, but still return with young hearts.” ...
HIGHLIGHTS
- Realme might split from Oppo completely if its business grows at a large scale.
- Realme could go for its own production line and ecosystem of devices.
- Realme is looking to go into accessories and wireless earbuds market in 2020.
Realme has shown substantial growth in the smartphone business ever since it came into the Indian market last year as a sub-brand of Oppo. And it has only been growing at a record rate, launching new phones one after another every few months. And while it still has some catching up to do in terms of market share, the brand is quite popular with the urban tech-savvy youth. And if things keep going in the right direction for Realme, it might completely split from Oppo in the future.
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Update: A Realme spokesperson reached out to India Today Tech to clarify that the statement attributed Realme senior executive was misunderstood and that the company was already a separate entity from Oppo. A company spokesperson tells India Today Tech that "source from where this information has been taken is a misunderstood communication by a local media in Asia Pacific markets."
The spokesperson adds, "We wanted to clarify that realme Mobile Telecommunications Private Limited is already an independent brand and legal entitity. realme was officially established on May 4, 2018 by its founder Sky Li and Madhav Sheth."
According to a report from Digitimes, Realme's Chung Hsiang-wei, chief commercial officer of Realme Taiwan, has said that it is likely that Realme may completely split from Oppo if the business scale continues to expand. The company will build up its own ecosystem of devices as well as separate production lines from Oppo. Realme already has its own R&D team in place for its products.
Currently, Realme uses components from Oppo for its products. All Realme devices use Oppo's parts bin and even use Oppo's ColorOS software with little to no changes. Realme has always shoed interest to come up with different experiences than what Oppo phones provide and it could be a step towards complete independence.
According to Chung Hsiang-wei, Realme now wants to go into the accessories and true wireless earbuds segment by next year. Realme already teased an Apple AirPods-like wireless earbuds set for India during launch of the Realme X2 Pro. Hence, Realme is looking to go in areas where Oppo hasn't gone so far.
Currently, according to the report, 60 per cent of Realme's users are male consumers who are tech-savvy. Oppo, on the other hand, has 60 per cent female users. However, these numbers stand true for Taiwan and Realme hasn't shared any data for the Indian market.
In India, Realme is currently going up against Xiaomi with its aggressively priced phones across various price points. The Realme X and Realme XT are taking care of the sub-Rs 20,000 segment whereas the Realme X2 Pro is the brand's first entry into the Rs 30,000 segment. Realme is also bombing the sub-Rs 10,000 segment with multiple smartphones.
Realme is also looking to bring the first of commercial 5G devices to the Indian market. It has already teased the Realme X50 5G variant with a dual-mode 5G and dual-selfie camera setup.
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