The Chinese marketing whiz who controls India’s cellphone market

It is tempting to assume Indian consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to mobile phones, and that the marketplace is brutally competitive. But what most people are unaware of is that a virtually unknown entity called BBK Electronics, a Chinese company, manufactures at least five brands of phones that dominate the Indian market. These are: Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, Vivo and iQOO.

Between these brands, BBK controls over 40% of the Indian market, the world’s second largest for mobile phones after China. The mastermind who built BBK’s strategy over the years is Duang Yongping, a reticent billionaire, who now lives in the US.

Very little is known about the man and the company in the public domain. And those who do know, prefer to keep their cards close and statements measured. But between controlled literature that emerges once a while in the public domain and one-on-one conversations with people who work with BBK out of India, a picture emerges– that of an audacious visionary who first tasted success in 1996 as a VCD manufacturer on the back of a risk-fraught bet.