On June 16, Liu Zuohu, founder of OnePlus, announced a comprehensive merger with OPPO, while the name will remain.
OPPO indicated that the reason for this consolidation is to give further play to the advantages of cooperative operations. It will achieve better integration of resources and brand promotion in the future. Looking forward, the two brands will jointly launch more innovative and differentiated products.
It is worth noting that, prior to the announcement of full integration, OnePlus and OPPO maintained independent operations while sharing a supply chain and production line.
There were early signs of OnePlus and OPPO’s partnership. In May 2020, Liu Zuohu returned to OPPO as the Chief Product Officer, being responsible for both product lines. In March 2021, the new OnePlus 9 Series abandoned the original Hydrogen OS and adopted the same ColorOS operating system as OPPO.
According to Tencent News, this new adjustment of the OPPO and OnePlus cooperation is also in preparation for car-building. It has been reported that Chen Mingyong intentionally assigned Liu Zuohu to participate in part of the car-building work. Recently, Liu visited Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, in Beijing.
In the first quarter of 2021, OPPO's shipment volume in the Chinese market was 20.6 million units, accounting for 22% of the market share, second only to Vivo; while from the perspective of the global market, OPPO ranked fourth, with a market share of 11%, a Canalys report said.