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Exclusive | Chinese smartphone giant Oppo to launch short video app amid TikTok’s struggles
- Internet services are expected to become an important part of Oppo’s overall business amid the global roll-out of 5G networks
- Oppo’s new short video platform could drive stickiness within its 350 million active users globally, as TikTok finds itself in the crosshairs of Washington
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Oppo, the world’s fifth-largest smartphone vendor, plans to launch its own short video platform later this year, betting on the company’s hundreds of millions of users to drive its expansion into online services.
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“Other than hardware products, we also aim to provide services to consumers,” Jimmy Yi, president of Oppo Asia-Pacific, said in a videoconference interview earlier this month. He indicated that the company has already started offering an app store, gaming centre and browser service in some markets outside China, like Indonesia.
“We’re about to launch our short video service in the second half of this year,” Yi told the South China Morning Post. No details were provided because the initiative has just started, but Yi said: “Internet services will be important to our business … as 5G [network roll-out around the world] continues to develop.”
Oppo is likely to be the first major smartphone vendor to offer its own short video service, as a built-in app on its devices, to consumers worldwide. Chinese Android smartphone makers Huawei Technologies and Vivo do not have similar plans, according to separate comments made by their representatives to the Post last week.
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The timing of Oppo’s launch comes as TikTok, the world’s most popular short video platform, finds itself in a legal battle against the Trump administration, which has pressured app owner ByteDance to sell its US operations over national security concerns.
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