About Singaporeans, iPhones, and the Find X8 Pro’s return: OPPO’s tell-all interview with its top executives

After a successful run in Q3 2024 that saw OPPO taking the number one spot for smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia, the company could’ve easily chosen to continue pushing out entry-level handsets. Instead, OPPO decided that the time was finally right (again) to attempt a new globalisation strategy that reintroduces its premium category to further deliver its flagship experience to more users.

In multiple group interviews, we spoke to three of OPPO’s executives to learn their thoughts on various topics, including their perceptions of Singapore and the Southeast Asian market, their objectives with the Find X8 series, and the brand's future of premium phones.

We also wanted to figure out how on Earth OPPO’s Touch To Share even works with iPhone’s NFC for file transferring.

They are Andy Shi, President of OPPO Asia Pacific, who shared the hot seat with Elvis Zhou, Overseas Chief Marketing Officer of OPPO. In a separate discussion, we picked the mind of Billy Zhang, Vice President of OPPO and its President of Overseas Markets, Sales and Services.

Note: All interviews were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, and responses were translated into English and further edited for brevity and accuracy. Each question was answered by one of three executives, and their combined responses are rearranged in this article for relevance.

How did OPPO develop Touch To Share? If it’s targeted at iPhone users, how would you envision exposing this feature to them?

To answer this question, I need to start from the root of the issue. OPPO has a habit of asking users for feedback and preferences. On a trip I took between April and May this year, I discovered that many users carried two phones: one Android and one Apple. Their main pain point was struggling to transfer photos between these two devices, including Live Photos. We wanted to solve this problem since the Android device was an OPPO.

I cannot give you the specifics of how Touch To Share works, but I can tell you our technology makes it such that at the point of sending, we convert the images' format from our device to a format that suits the iOS platform.

The eventuality that OPPO will address the premium phone user market was not our goal. We’re not out here to steal the rice bowl or users of others. Our starting point is to solve pain points, and in our case, many OPPO users also carry iPhones, which is how Touch To Share came about.

Given the similarity of the Find X8 series' new features to iPhones, did you work with Apple to create magnetic wireless charging and Touch To Share?

Nope. We created these features because we found them beneficial for our users. Our approach to our phones has been to make devices that address our users’ needs. 

So, we did not have direct cooperation with Apple to create these features for the Find X8 series.

We’re seeing more competitors moving towards the localisation of AI because of language-based AI features. How is OPPO faring in this aspect?

This question is challenging even for people developing AI. At the moment, we are working closely with Gemini (Google) on AI, especially language-based AI. We are not insistent on developing all of OPPO's onboarded AI features, so we adopt a half-half, cooperative approach to having a balance of AI features built specifically for our device, or for smartphone devices in general.

Was there a reason why OPPO stopped selling its premium smartphones (Find X6 series and Find X7 series) globally for two years?

There are two reasons. First, back then, the global competitiveness of flagship products was largely reliant on the level of branding, market leadership, and user support. We felt that our fundamentals in these areas could be better on a global scale. 

As you can see, the market has shown better receptiveness to the return of the Find X8 series, and we’ve received even more user support for our products. This gives us the confidence to resume our global outreach for the premium category.

Secondly was the overwhelming success of our foldable phones (Find N series) outside of China. We decided to complement our global phone offerings with a dual premium approach with both foldables and conventional bar-type phones.

Which countries in this region would you aggressively promote the Find X8 series?

Materially there are two markets, but these two markets represent very different consumer behaviours and buying patterns. 

One of them is Singapore. This country has a highly developed economy. Our findings show Singaporean consumers are single-mindedly obsessed with flagship and premium products. To them, it’s very possible that they can buy a flagship-grade product with just half a month’s salary. Frankly, their “financial decisions” are made easier because of their earning power (laughs).

Traditionally, the more mature and well-off a country is, the harder it can be to break into the market. But we discover that wealthier countries are more likely to switch across different types of premium products, so long as the product has appeal, like our clamshell foldables. Singapore has brought us many “surprises”.

The second market is Indonesia. With the biggest population in Southeast Asia, it’s perceived as the second China of the region. I believe its economic weight and its population’s impact on the world stage are reasons to keep a close eye on Indonesia.

In fact, it’s why we chose to do the global launch in Bali. Our investment overheads into Indonesia are sizeable, and its potential is vast on all fronts (manufacturing, B2B).

How are the Find X8 series phones distributed in Southeast Asia?

Those made in Indonesia are for the Indonesian market, while the rest of SEA gets the Find X8 series from our manufacturing facilities in China.

Are there any plans to manufacture more OPPO phones outside of China or to find more ways to localise phone offerings?

First, I think the general sense of the world’s international relations and recent changes have led many brands (not just OPPO) to think more deeply about their approach to manufacturing.

Next, having a wider spread and variety of manufacturing locations can help ease the stock shortage of our phones. The factory in Indonesia is an example of how it's actually capable of building more devices to satisfy the Southeast Asian territory, but we’re only currently using it to meet Indonesian demand.

While manufacturing costs in China are still slightly lower now than in other locations, this can change.

So, it is possible that OPPO will explore having more manufacturing alternatives. Still, it’s not for certain that we will have even more manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia or modify our Indonesian factory to help meet our Southeast Asian demand. 

What are the chances of OPPO entering the US market?

I feel this is one of the most important, competitive, and high-threshold markets to break into. Even for a big brand to break into the US, you need a high-level system that can withstand the market. This makes the US a closely monitored market for ourselves and our competitors.

But, we do not have a concrete timeline to share when we can enter the (US) market. Honestly, the overseas market still has plenty of room — with decent results for OPPO in Asia Pacific, East Africa, Latin America…

So frankly, we do not have a timeline yet, but we will eventually decide to enter the US market at a later time. But our official answer is not yet.

What’s next after Find X8 series?

As mentioned earlier, the return of the Find X8 series to the global market is part of our broader dual premium strategy each year.

We will do foldables in H1, followed by our conventional bar-type premium phones in the latter half.

One year, two different series, in a steady cadence. 

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