Over the past five years, Realme has grown from a very local brand in China to the most common brand among the top 5 companies that sell the most phones in many other countries (Among them is Spain) is one of the architects of this growth Chase Zoo, the current Vice President of Realme and a great connoisseur of the mobile phone market. We got to talk to him about the sector, the future of the brand and more.
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That’s how tough the smartphone market has become in the last five years
Xu started his career at Realme in 2018, just when the brand took a big leap and established itself as an independent brand. But we are talking about an executive with a lot of experience in his sector: he joined Oppo in 2010 and experienced the rise of the smartphone industry.
Shortly after his arrival at Realme, the pandemic came and it changed everything. “It had a big impact on many businesses,” Xu explained, speaking of the sector as a whole, adding: “We experienced a lot of ups and downs in the supply chain, including shortages but also surpluses.” All this in a few years and there is no precedent for it, sentence. Big change in the market for him at this time? “uncertainty”.
“Uncertainty” has been and continues to be a major challenge in the smartphone market
Talking about Realme, he explains to us how the great objective of recent years has been to build, expand and grow its brand. Xu sees the current result as a success: “We have collected more than 200 million users and the number is constantly increasing” he explains about sales. On his growth: “We’ve gone from one or two markets to over 50 markets around the world,” in what he calls a “period of rapid growth.”
A second step to focus on the most important markets and higher ranges
Where is Realme now? Chase Xue is clear: after this initial phase they want to focus on their “core markets”, which include Europe and especially Spain. “We will focus more and invest more in this market,” he added.
There is another important change: the importance of high-end phones for Realme, and this can be seen in the evolution of the brand’s audience. Initially, Xu explained, its target audience was young people, but Realme has grown and at the same time its audience has grown (in age): “At first we focused on students, but they have grown up and are already on the job market “, tells us. They continue to target this group of young users but also those who have grown up with them, and that is why they have detected an increase in people interested in their high-end phones.
“At first we were well-known for our entry-level phones like our C series,” but this change in its target audience (or should I say?) is considered a “special strategy” for mid-range and high-end phones this year. What can we expect in the short term? A Strong push of the GT rangewhich did not arrive in Europe last year but will this year, according to Chase Xu.
BIG CHALLENGE: Sneak between Europe’s top 3 brands
In this second phase, Xu says that “the next four years are very important for Realme” and goes further: “In the next five years we expect to be the fifth brand worldwide.” Especially in Europe they are even more ambitious: “We want to be among the top 3 manufacturers in three years”, which means a 50% increase in sales for them. Your main market will be here Italy, Poland, the Balkan region and of course Spain.
Europe (including Spain) and Latin America are the big focus for Realme from now on
Your strategy? Focus on the range between 200 and 500 euros. They will do this on the one hand with what they call “numerical series”, such as the recently presented Realme 12. This is their main range, as they explain to us, although it is not their top range. But they’ll also focus on the GT range, which as we’ve mentioned is finally coming back to Europe, and in Xu’s words, will do so in style. All this will go hand-in-hand with deals with the most important operators, including Vodafone and Orange, which Realme sees as crucial to its consolidation in Europe.
With Latin America, Xu doesn’t specify the purpose at hand, but he tells us that it will Its another big market For them in 2024 and 2025.
Surprises for AI and the next Realme GT
Chase Zoo explained in an interview Realme’s R&D investment recently skyrocketed at the start of the year. The focus is on artificial intelligence, because it cannot be otherwise (he himself admits that it is “the main trend of the sector”), but “not on technology, but on what customers need.”
But apart from AI, Realme is focusing its investment on camera and performance. Realme is particularly proud of its fast charging: eight or nine minutes to fully charge the phone with 240W fast charging. “No one has gotten over it yet.” Interestingly, Zuo Specify the screen: “We’ll have a big surprise with our next generation (phone) GT Screen.”
No foldable phone or a great ecosystem (yet): “simple is better”
When I ask Chase Zhu about foldable phones, he’s clear: He says that Realme already has the technology ready and can make a foldable phone, but “do our customers want it?” He doesn’t rule it out for the future, but for now they don’t like to focus as much on phone size as the rest of the technology.
Not for foldables, not for a large ecosystem: Realme’s main focus is mobile phones
Another thing is that Canceled for now: Building a great ecosystem. Unlike what happens with the rest of the big brands, which mention the word “ecosystem” hundreds of times in their presentations, Realme says it prefers to follow a strategy. “Easily the best”: “This industry is really competitive,” he said and added: “Smartphones are our main focus.”
This does not mean that they are not going to launch accessories: we can expect more headphones and tablets in Europe soon, in fact they confirm that we will see them soon. But Realme’s ambitious goals mean its strategy only covers one area: smartphones. And only smartphones. We’ll be following them closely, as they have a wonderful (and complex, it should be said) challenge ahead of them.
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