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Native name | 广东步步高电子工业有限公司 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Guangdong BBK Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. |
| Company type | Private[1] |
| Industry | Consumer electronics |
| Founded | 18 September 1995; 30 years ago (1995-09-18) |
| Founder | Duan Yongping |
| Defunct | 7 April 2023; 2 years ago (2023-04-07) |
| Fate | Split and deregistered |
| Successors | Oppo Vivo |
| Headquarters | Futian District, Shenzhen, China |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Smartphones Smart TVs Hi-Fi Home theatre Audiovisual |
| Brands | BBK Oppo Vivo iQOO OnePlus Realme |
| BBK Electronics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 广东步步高电子工业有限公司 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 廣東步步高電子工業有限公司 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Guangdong Bu Bu Gao Electronics Industrial Corporation Ltd.[a] | ||||||
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BBK Electronics Corporation was a Chinesemultinational electronicsconglomerate, created byDuan Yongping. It was a leading consumer electronics brand specialising in audio and video equipment, home entertainment products and home appliances. It also acted as an investor in leading companies in various sectors of consumer electronics. The company specialized in developing consumer electronics products such assmartphones,tablet computers,smartwatches,smart TVs,Hi-Fi equipment,Blu-ray players, anddigital cameras.
The company was deregistered on 7 April 2023 as it split its component brands off into separate companies or brands.[2][3] The reported reasoning for this was to avoid regulatory scrutiny on Chinese companies.
As of 2026 the companies includeOppo,OnePlus (which operates as a subsidiary of Oppo),Realme,Vivo andIQOO (which operates as a subsidiary of Vivo).
Guangdong BBK Electronics Corporation limited was established on 18 September 1995, inDongguan,Guangdong, China, ByDuan Yongping.[4] Due to the conflict between Duan and the boss of Subor, Duan Yongping decided to leave Subor and create another company, making a commitment to not engage in student computer-related products within one year. In 1996, BBK released their first product line - the corded telephone. After the promised one year, BBK released their first student computer product "BBG Student Computer (Floppy No.1)"(BBG is the original English name of BBK). Once the product was release, it achieved great success, making BBK one of the three major student computer companies in China (the other two companies are Subor and Yuxing), and finally became the most popular student computer product in China according the investigation made by China National Radio in July 1997. Meanwhile, Duan divided BBK into three – the AV factory (the predecessor of Oppo), the telephone factory (the predecessor of Vivo), and the computer and video game factory (the predecessor of BBK Education Electronics/Little Genius Limited Technology), each operating independently. In order to increase the responsiveness of the three factories, the headquarters has decentralized some marketing and after-sales rights; the three factories regularly reconcile accounts with the headquarters and allocate a certain percentage of their annual profits to cover the operating costs of the headquarters' functional departments.[5]
As the group's business continued to improve, Duan Yongping felt that the time was ripe to let go completely. Therefore, at the beginning of 1999, based on the previous situation of the three factories operating independently, the group was further split into three companies with independent equity and personnel. From then on, the computer and video game factory, telephone factory, and AV factory became completely independent companies with their own equity and personnel structures. However, at that time, the three companies could still share about 80% of the original BBK channels, and the brand operation of BBK was still managed by the headquarters.[5]
Oppo's subsidiaries includeOnePlus, andRealme is now a mostly independent operation.[6][7][8] Vivo's subsidiaries includeiQOO (a sub-brand of Vivo).[9][10] It also marketedBlu-ray players,headphones, headphone amplifiers andsmartwatches underOppo Digital brand.[11][12] In March 2019, BBK Electronics announced IQOO as its newest member and also a performance sub-brand.[13]
BBK Electronics' headquarters and production base were located inChang'an, Dongguan.[14] It was the biggest taxpayer in Chang'an.[14]
In Q1 2017, BBK Electronics shipped 56.7 million smartphones, surpassingHuawei andApple to become the 2nd largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, behindSamsung.[15]
In 2020, BBK Electronics represented by Oppo, announced its involvement in independent research and development of chips.[16] Vivo also followed up to manufacture chips, mainly in cooperation withMediaTek.[17]
As of October 2022, BBK Electronics' Chinese-market website redirects to its subsidiary, Guangdong Little Genius Limited Technology Corporation, a manufacturer of smartwatches marketed for children.[18]
So who is OPPO? They certainly are not a household name and with good reason as OPPO is a newly created North American branch of BBK Electronics of China, a giant in the manufacture of consumer electronics, employing 12,000 people worldwide. So while OPPO is a new name, the company and the technology behind it are quite substantial.
OPPO Digital are based in Mountain View, CA and are the US arm of BBK Electronics who are a huge Chinese market leader and who have been a private label OEM for companies such as Denon, NEC and BOSE. Manufacturing all sorts of electronics gear, BBK Electronics is a market leader in China and looking to expand globally hence the creation of their North American arm – OPPO Digital.
