Introduction: For OPPO and vivo, the vast expanse of possibilities has always been found in the extension of taking one step at a time.

Shu Chen/Author Lishang Business Review/Production

1

Two Conferences, One Day Apart

On September 16, in Shenzhen, the 2026 vivo Developer Conference (VDC) kicked off. This marked the ninth consecutive year vivo held its developer conference, continuing with the theme “Together, We Move Forward.” A day later, on September 17, in Zhuhai, the 2026 OPPO Developer Conference (ODC) followed suit, with the theme “Stay Smooth, Embrace Proactive Intelligence.” One day apart, two leading Chinese smartphone manufacturers took the stage in two cities facing each other across the Lingdingyang Bay, presenting their latest advancements in operating systems, artificial intelligence, and developer ecosystems.

In the tech industry, developer conferences have long served as a litmus test for a company’s technological prowess and ecological appeal. Apple has WWDC, Google has I/O, Microsoft has Build, and Huawei has HDC. Being able to host an annual event that attracts developers from around the globe signifies that a company has evolved from a product company into a platform company. Today, the developer conferences of OPPO and vivo have become two significant industry IPs in China’s tech landscape.

The content of these two conferences also lives up to their significance.

vivo upgraded its BlueHeart AI strategy to “Personalized Intelligence,” adopting a technical route of “Large Model + Harness + Intelligent Agent Security Architecture.” It built an end-to-end intelligent agent large model matrix centered around “Understanding You, Remembering You, Getting Things Done”; BlueHeart Harness, deeply integrated into the system kernel, can invoke over 6,000 atomic skills and support tens of thousands of tasks. OriginOS 7 integrates AI capabilities into high-frequency functions like screenshots, photo albums, file management, input methods, and calendars; BlueRiver Operating System 4 achieves full-link Rust implementation across kernel, framework, and applications, with its self-developed kernel, BlueKernel, donated as an incubation project to the OpenAtom Open Source Foundation and already adapted by multiple chip manufacturers.

A day later, OPPO delivered its own answers: ColorOS 17 was released, marking the first simultaneous system upgrade across OPPO, OnePlus, and realme brands; three major AI technology foundations—New Computing, New Perception, and New Ecosystem—were unveiled. The on-device large model features a Linear Attention architecture, natively supporting 128K context, reducing memory usage by 48% and energy consumption by 55% compared to the previous generation; the Persona X Symbiotic Memory Engine enables AI to learn to record, forget, and reflect over long-term companionship.

These achievements share a common trait: they are not mere lists of parameters but system capabilities built around real-world usage scenarios. OPPO AI’s One-Tap Flash Note’s food pickup code feature has been used over 1 billion times, Xiao Bu Suggestions cover over 700 subdivision (niche) service scenarios, and BlueHeart Xiao V can handle complex instructions like travel planning and data organization. The value of technology ultimately manifests in specific, everyday life scenarios.

Underpinning these two conferences is the user base accumulated by the two companies over three decades: ColorOS has over 770 million global active users, serving more than 90 countries and regions worldwide; vivo has nearly 600 million global users. The products and operating systems of the two companies connect over 1.3 billion users globally—a result of three decades of compound growth, but far from the endpoint.

2

From Channel Labels to Technology-Driven Identities

Rewind a decade or so, and the industry’s perception of these two companies was much simpler: strong in channels, skilled in marketing. During the years when “Internet thinking” and “windfall theories” swept through China’s business world, OPPO and vivo were often seen as representatives of traditional smartphone manufacturers—their extensive network of county- and township-level stores and billboards were considered their deepest moats, while in the technology narrative, they were rarely the protagonists. A decade-plus later, this portrait has been completely rewritten.

First, let’s look at the fundamentals.

In the second quarter of 2026, OPPO and vivo each held a 16% market share in China’s smartphone market, placing them in the first tier alongside Huawei and Apple; together, they accounted for roughly one-third of the Chinese market. Internationally, the Chinese smartphone market surpassed RMB 1 trillion in scale in 2025, with vivo achieving multi-fold growth in key overseas markets over the past year, and OPPO’s products spreading across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

Next, consider their technological foundations.

As of June 30, 2026, OPPO had filed over 125,000 global patent applications, with over 69,000 granted, of which 92% were invention patents, ranking seventh globally in Chinese invention patent grants in 2025; in 5G standard-essential patents, which determine discourse power in the communications industry, OPPO ranked eighth globally with 3,847 patents, while vivo ranked tenth with 3,160. In their shared hometown of Dongguan, the top three companies by R&D investment are Huawei Terminal, OPPO, and vivo.

Then, examine their vertical technological depth.

vivo was the first Chinese smartphone manufacturer to develop its own imaging chip, iterating from V1, V1+, V2, to V3 over four years, with V3 achieving the Android camp’s first 4K cinematic portrait video and 4K post-shooting editing; the BlueHeart Large Model Matrix covers parameter scales from billions to hundreds of billions, making vivo the first terminal manufacturer to open-source its self-developed large model. OPPO has continuously researched foldable screens for over eight years, accumulating over 3,500 related patents; in February 2024, Chen Mingyong proposed in an internal letter that “2024 is the first year of AI smartphones,” a judgment ahead of the entire industry.

A telling detail: On September 10, 2026, European patent operator Tulip Licensing announced the launch of the world’s largest imaging patent licensing program, with four initial licensors—Huawei, OPPO, Canon, and Sony. OPPO stood alongside Huawei and two Japanese imaging giants. The dominance of the global imaging industry is shifting toward China.

This transformation from channel labels to technology-driven identities took two decades. How did it happen? The answer lies not in some earth-shattering decision but in the shared origins of the two companies and the word inscribed into their organizational DNA from the very beginning.

3

Two Companies Emerging from BBK

To understand OPPO and vivo, one must return to Chang’an Town, Dongguan, and their predecessor company, BBK.

Around 1995, BBK, under the leadership of Duan Yongping, was already a nationally renowned brand for learning machines and telephones. In 1999, Duan Yongping carried out a rather unique restructuring of BBK in Chinese business history: following the principles of “people follow the business, independent equity, no affiliation,” the company was split into three independent enterprises—BBK Educational Electronics, specializing in reading machines and learning machines; BBK Audio-Visual Electronics, specializing in VCDs, DVDs, and later MP3s and MP4s, led by Chen Mingyong; and BBK Communication Technology, specializing in cordless phones and mobile phones, led by Shen Wei.

The most unique aspect of this restructuring was the interest (interest) arrangement. Duan Yongping retained about 10% equity in each of the three companies, leaving the vast majority to management teams and employees. In an era when “the boss must have absolute control” was still the mainstream creed, this was a nearly (nearly) counterintuitive act of humility. Its underlying logic was Duan Yongping’s later widely circulated business philosophy—integrity.

The true starting point of the two companies, measured by tech industry standards, was unremarkable. In 2002, after China’s WTO accession, international giants like Sony and Philips launched a patent war against China’s DVD industry, with exorbitant royalty fees instantly wiping out the industry’s survival space. Chen Mingyong, in charge of audio-visual operations, promptly shut down the DVD business and founded the OPPO brand in 2004, starting with MP3 products—the X9 in 2005 was hailed as a “milestone in domestic MP3s”—before entering smartphones in 2008. Shen Wei followed a similar path, starting with cordless phones before entering smartphones, officially launching the vivo brand in 2009 and breaking through in 2012 with the X1, the world’s first smartphone integrating Hi-Fi-grade professional chips.

Telephones, DVD players, MP3s—these were the humble beginnings of two companies now at the center of China’s tech industry. They lacked chip heritage, software pedigree, or a century of communications technology accumulation; initially, they even built their brands from scratch. Precisely for this reason, their journey today is especially worth studying.

4

Integrity: The Shared Underlying Operating System

On the official websites of OPPO and vivo, the same word is prominently emphasized: integrity.

This term originates from Duan Yongping. Early in BBK’s founding, he told employees: “A business doesn’t do everything; it must adhere to integrity... Doing things honestly is our business principle.” Later, he summarized it as “not doing incorrect things”—where wrong means actions that make the enterprise unhealthy or unsustainable. Later, as an investor, his concept of integrity evolved into “not investing in companies I don’t understand.”

Shen Wei articulated integrity more systematically, defining it as “an ordinary mindset” that sets aside surface-level distractions like difficulties, pressures, and temptations, especially when costs must be paid; adhering to thinking from first principles and striving to do the right things correctly. He also offered a more concise formulation: “Cause determines effect; focus on sowing causes, and effects will follow naturally.”

At BBK’s 20th anniversary, Shen Wei stated, “Our corporate culture and values, centered on integrity, are the most important reason our enterprise has survived for 20 years and the only core competitiveness that allows us to compete with world-class companies today.”

For a company to prioritize “what not to do” over “what to do,” and “sowing causes” over “seeking effects,” is rare in Chinese business. Over three decades, countless companies have fallen by deviating from integrity: chasing windfalls, leveraging up, blind diversification, capital games. OPPO and vivo, however, have used the same word to calibrate all major decisions.

Intriguingly, on the day of ODC 2026, which coincided with OPPO’s 31st anniversary, Chen Mingyong refined “integrity” in an internal public talk: ordinary mindset, grasp essentials, think long-term. These three phrases correspond to the three dimensions of integrity culture.

Among them, an ordinary mindset is the mental approach—eliminating distractions, returning to first principles, and clarifying what is right especially under pressure and temptation. Grasping essentials is the method—identifying the most fundamental, core values of products and technologies. Thinking long-term is the temporal perspective—measuring right and wrong in decades, not quarters. Chen Mingyong said he particularly valued “grasping essentials,” stating, “Enterprises must excel at identifying the most fundamental, core values of products and technologies to create truly compelling offerings for users.”

If iOS is Apple’s moat and communications technology is Huawei’s, then “integrity” is the shared underlying operating system of OPPO and vivo. It is not written on spec sheets but has operated at every critical juncture over the past three decades. The only way to test an operating system’s quality is to observe its performance in real-world operations.

5

Returning to Users: For Whom Is Technology Made?

The first practical application of integrity is user orientation. Nearly every company claims to prioritize users, but OPPO and vivo have turned it into a decision-making mechanism.

Chen Mingyong has repeatedly emphasized an internal ranking at OPPO in recent years: “Place user needs and corresponding technological innovations first, competitors last.” In his view, while competition is inevitable in business, “the essence of competition lies not in imitating or defeating rivals but in accomplishing what others cannot.” This statement bears reflection: companies fixated on competitors can at best match them; those focused on users can achieve what others cannot.

At vivo, investment in self-developed chips is the most direct illustration of this logic. In 2021, when vivo focused on imaging, it found that fixed image processing algorithms in SoCs could no longer meet user needs—users were fed up with “the spinning circle” when taking photos, along with accompanying battery drain and heat. Thus, vivo decided to develop China’s first self-developed imaging chip for smartphones. Note the decision’s starting point: not the technological narrative of “self-developed chips” but the user pain point of “the spinning circle.” From V1 to V3, four generations of chips addressed the same class of issues: real-time night scene preview, 4K cinematic portrait, post-shooting editing—each generation pushing a specific experience to heights previously unattainable in the industry.

The same approach applies to AI. At the 2026 vivo Developer Conference, vivo Vice President Zhou Wei judged that “the core of today’s AI competition is shifting from mere technical parameter comparisons to whether it can truly land in scenarios and solve ordinary people’s practical pain points.” Chen Mingyong put it more bluntly: the industry overemphasizes AI as a “productivity tool,” while its core value lies in unleashing human productivity and creativity—“If you only see productivity gains, you haven’t grasped AI’s essence.”

Thus, both companies chose the same slow path: avoiding parameter arms races and integrating large models into systems and scenarios. ColorOS 17 enables AI to move from “passively awaiting instructions” to “proactively providing services”; OriginOS 7 embeds AI capabilities into highest-frequency functions like screenshots, photo albums, and calendars. Tang Kai, President of OPPO’s Software Engineering Division, summed up this practice at ODC: “Good products should grow alongside users.”

Shen Wei put it even more definitively: users are the sole reason for vivo’s existence, and “user orientation” has been the company’s only consistent direction for over two decades.

6

Altruistic Symbiosis: Getting the Order of Interests Right

The second practical application of integrity is the design of interest structures. This is the most distinctive and least truly understood aspect of OPPO and vivo.

In 2004, when vivo first entered smartphones and began building channels, Shen Wei set a channel policy: prioritize letting retailers earn money, then provincial distributors, and finally vivo headquarters.

Placing the manufacturer’s own interests last in the commercial world is nearly (nearly) “against common sense.” Yet this policy forged the most stable channel consortium in China’s consumer electronics industry, with provincial distribution companies often jointly owned by former BBK employees and manufacturers through cross-shareholding; vivo’s regional managers sent to various regions were first and foremost “evangelists of values.” Over two decades, this system has weathered every shift in China’s channel distribution landscape, evolving from an interest consortium to a community of shared destiny. Today’s vast network of stores across China’s counties and townships is not a channel built with money but an ecosystem that has grown organically.

Internally, there is another equally counter-mainstream arrangement. Duan Yongping continued to dilute his shares during the BBK era, ultimately retaining around 10% in each of the three companies. OPPO and vivo carried on this tradition. Media reports indicate that OPPO employees have held over 60% of the company's shares for an extended period, while vivo's management constitutes the largest shareholder group. A common story in the industry is that competitors find it difficult to poach executives from OPPO and vivo, even with offers of two to three times their current salaries. The reason is clear: these individuals are not just employees but shareholders and business partners.

Complementing this approach is the shared commitment of both companies to "not go public." Without the pressure from external capital, there is no need to cut R&D spending or overextend distribution channels for the sake of quarterly financial reports. With cash-on-delivery practices, timely payments to suppliers, and avoidance of high leverage, the profits generated are distributed among employees, partners, and R&D. The trade-off of this arrangement is forgoing the narratives and valuations of the capital markets; the benefit is that decision-making can fully adhere to the sole criterion of "long-term health."

Shen Wei's explanation of altruism is simple yet powerful: "Integrity means not taking advantage of others in cooperation and having the courage to bear losses. Having the courage to bear losses is the first step toward altruistic win-win outcomes." In vivo's hierarchy of values, consumers, employees, partners, and shareholders—the four stakeholders—are "equally important, with no distinction made between them."

Most failures in the business world are essentially failures of interest structures: prioritizing short-term profits over users, shareholders over employees, and manufacturers over partners. Over three decades, OPPO and vivo have demonstrated another possibility: by correctly ordering stakeholders, altruists will ultimately benefit themselves.

7

Long-termism: The Compounding Power of Daily Progress

The third dimension of integrity is time. Nearly all companies claim to adhere to long-termism, but the true test lies in whether they are willing to make sustained investments without immediate returns.

OPPO's R&D in foldable screens has spanned over eight years, accumulating more than 3,500 related patents. Before foldable screens evolved from a niche concept to annual shipments exceeding 10 million units, this was a long and arduous journey. vivo established its AI Global Research Institute in 2017, recognizing "AI as the most fundamental technology," and began laying the groundwork six years before large models became a global buzzword. OPPO built its own AI Binhaiwan Data Center in Dongguan, deploying a three-tier large model architecture—Titan, Turbo, and Tiny. vivo's Blue River operating system chose to rewrite its system framework in Rust, a first in the industry and the most challenging path, to ensure memory security from the source.

The approach to imaging technology further illustrates this point. Instead of taking shortcuts by buying and rebranding international brands, both companies established long-term joint R&D systems with Hasselblad and Zeiss, integrating optical aesthetics and computational photography into their technological stacks layer by layer. Today, OPPO holds approximately 6,000 valid global imaging patents and stands alongside Huawei, Canon, and Sony as one of the initial licensees in the world's largest imaging patent licensing program.

The pace of international expansion has similarly been a slow and steady variable. OPPO opened its first overseas sales counter in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2009 and, 17 years later, has a presence across five continents. vivo entered India in 2014 and has since achieved exponential growth in key overseas markets. There have been no dramatic mergers or lightning wars—only methodical, station-by-station cultivation.

Most of these investments yielded no immediate returns at the time they were made, which is precisely their value. Jim Collins described the flywheel effect in *Good to Great*: the giant wheel remains motionless at first, but after sustained effort, it begins to turn at a certain point, accelerating faster and faster until it becomes unstoppable. The thirty years of OPPO and vivo fully embody this effect: integrity culture ensures they do the right things, user orientation ensures they do things in the right direction, altruistic structures ensure organizational and ecological cohesion, and the rest is left to time.

The most remarkable aspect of compounding is that it imposes almost no requirements on the starting point. A background in telephones and DVD players does not prevent standing at the center of the industry thirty years later—as long as one is willing to invest thirty years of patience.

8

Correction Is Also Integrity

Integrity is often misunderstood as stubbornness. The opposite is true.

In May 2023, OPPO announced the shutdown of its chip subsidiary, ZEKU. This company, which embodied OPPO's ambitions for self-developed chips, had assembled thousands of engineers. The Mariana X was the world's first 6nm self-developed imaging NPU, with over 10 million units shipped. The Mariana Y had evolved into a complete SoC subsystem. After three years of investment, its abrupt shutdown sent shockwaves through the industry, with much public regret.

Duan Yongping's response on Snowball was succinct: "The sooner you correct a mistake, the better."

This statement encapsulates another facet of integrity culture. The full expression of integrity is "doing the right things and doing things right," which necessarily includes "correcting mistakes when discovered." When external changes render original judgments obsolete, clinging to sunk costs or persisting for the sake of appearances is the true antithesis of integrity. After ZEKU's shutdown, OPPO's imaging technology accumulation was not wiped out: the architectural and algorithmic capabilities honed through chip development were transferred to joint R&D with Hasselblad and self-developed large model systems, continuing to generate value.

How far a company can ultimately go depends not only on how many things it does right but also on how quickly it can pivot after making mistakes. Long-termism does not mean persevering in the wrong direction but remaining unwavering in the right one. Distinguishing between the two requires a return to fundamentals with a level-headed mindset—which remains integrity.

9

Conclusion: Achievements Are Milestones; the Horizon Awaits

Reviewing the thirty years of OPPO and vivo reveals that their uniqueness does not lie in any single capability.

In terms of telecommunications technology accumulation, they lag behind Huawei. In terms of internet DNA and ecological storytelling, they fall short of Xiaomi. In terms of operating system first-mover advantage, they cannot compare with Apple. Their origins, in the spectrum of Chinese tech companies, are humble—telephones, DVD players, MP3 players.

Yet they have done the hardest and simplest thing right: under a stable set of values, they have consistently done the right things and left the rest to time.

Integrity has kept them from losing their way amid the countless trends that have come and gone. User orientation has ensured that technological accumulation always addresses real needs. Altruistic symbiosis has made employees, channels, and partners fellow rowers in the same boat. Long-termism has allowed all these factors to compound quietly over thirty years.

And the story of compounding runs deeper.

"Doing the right things," viewed from another angle, means "not making mistakes." In thirty years of Chinese business history, how many once-bright companies ultimately failed not because of competition but because of one or two catastrophic errors—high leverage, blind expansion, chasing trends, or capital maneuvers? For them, time was the enemy: the longer they operated, the higher the probability of errors, and a single fatal mistake could erase decades of accumulation.

For OPPO and vivo, time is a friend. Integrity does not guarantee winning every time; it ensures not losing on fundamental issues. Every return to fundamentals, every refusal of temptation, and every timely correction after discovering an error clears negative terms from the compounding equation. Over time, the gap between a company that consistently does the right things and one that frequently errs does not widen linearly but exponentially. This is why these two companies, with humble beginnings, have come this far—and why today's achievements are far from their endpoint but merely a milestone on a long compounding curve.

Beyond this milestone, the course will only broaden. The AI revolution has just begun, and both companies are treating it as a new round of seed-sowing. ColorOS 17's proactive intelligence and vivo's personalized intelligence are merely the prologue to this transformation. New device forms are emerging: vivo is channeling its accumulated imaging and AI capabilities into the "eyes" and "brains" of robots. OPPO's system capabilities are extending to tablets, watches, earphones, automotive interfaces, and health devices, building a multi-terminal proactive service ecosystem. Exponential growth in key overseas markets continues, and the Developer Conference IP itself grows annually with the expanding ecosystem.

Today, as two consecutive developer conferences light up Shenzhen and Zhuhai, as over 1.3 billion users run products and systems from these two companies, and as their patents stand alongside global giants, people see the results of compounding. Yet the starting point of this outcome was merely a company in Chang'an Town, Dongguan, in 1995, willing to distribute most of its equity to employees, and a principle so simple it hardly seemed newsworthy—to do things honestly.

These seven words lack storytelling flair, dramatic conflict, or any qualities of a bestselling business book title. But after thirty years of trends, concept shifts, and bubble bursts in the Chinese business world, they are among the few principles fully validated.

Being unique means doing the same category of right things for thirty years. The path of OPPO and vivo is the most complete footnote to "success through the right way": it proves that without innate advantages, one can still reach the forefront of the industry through integrity, patience, and altruism. As long as this continues, time will remain on their side. Today's achievements are merely a coordinate on this curve; the direction in which the curve extends is what truly merits attention.

For these two companies, which started with telephones and DVD players, the future's boundless potential lies not elsewhere but along the extension of daily progress.