Vivo (technology company)

Last updated

Vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd.
Native name
维沃移动通信有限公司
Company type Private
Industry Consumer electronics
Predecessor BBK Electronics
Founded2009;15 years ago (2009)
Founder
Headquarters
Dongguan, Guangdong
,
China
Area served
Worldwide [lower-alpha 1]
Key people
  • Shen Wei (Founder & CEO)
  • Baishan Hu (Executive Vice President & COO)
  • Spark Ni (Senior Vice President & CMO)
  • Yujian Shi (Senior Vice President & CTO)
Products Smartphones
Hi-Fi
Software and Online services
Number of employees
40,000 [2]  (2022)
Subsidiaries iQOO
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese 维沃移动通信有限公司
Traditional Chinese 維沃移動通信有限公司
Literal meaningVivo Mobile Communications Co., Ltd.
Website vivo.com

Vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong that designs and develops smartphones, smartphone accessories, software and online services. The company develops software for its phones, distributed through its V-Appstore, with iManager included in their proprietary, Android-based operating system, Origin OS in Mainland China, and Funtouch OS elsewhere. It has 10,000 employees, with 10 R&D centers in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Xi’an, Taipei, Tokyo, and San Diego. [3] [4]

Contents

History

Since its founding in 2009, Vivo has expanded its global market, serving over 400 million users with its mobile products and services, to over 60 countries and regions. [5]

In 2017, Vivo entered the smartphone market in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. [6] [7] [8] [9] In June 2017, it entered the Pakistan smartphone market and the Vivo brand is currently experiencing rapid growth and popularity in the country. [10] In October 2020, vivo announced that it would begin to sell its products also in Europe.

Vivo X60 featured the Zeiss co-engineered imaging system. Vivo X60 Pro+ Orange.jpg
Vivo X60 featured the Zeiss co-engineered imaging system.

On 17 December 2020, Vivo and Zeiss announced a long-term strategic partnership to jointly promote and develop breakthrough innovations in mobile imaging technology. The first "Vivo Zeiss co-engineered imaging system" will be featured in the Vivo X60 series. As part of the collaboration agreement, Vivo and Zeiss will establish the Vivo Zeiss Imaging Lab, a joint R&D program to innovate mobile imaging technology for Vivo's flagship smartphones. [11]

In 2021, Vivo was ranked among the top 5 smartphone makers, achieving a global market share of 8%. [12]

In April 2021, three pallets of Vivo phones [13] caught fire at Hong Kong International Airport, prompting a ban on air freight of Vivo phones through Hong Kong. [14]

In June 2022, Vivo entered the world-famous Guinness Book of Records . [15] It achieved the record for the "Longest Video" in which its flagship device Vivo X Fold happened to be folded over 300,000 times for a total length of 270 hours or 11 days and 6 hours. [16]

In November 2023, Vivo announced BlueOS, a open-source distributed operating system for Internet of things of smart devices and Wearables with Vivo Watch 3 featuring the new operating system. [17]

Marketing

In October 2015, Vivo became the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) under a two-year deal starting in the 2016 season. [18] [19] In July 2017, the deal was extended until 2022. [20] However, in response to the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes between India and China, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was criticised in India for allowing a Chinese company to be the title sponsor of the league. Vivo and BCCI mutually agreed to suspend the deal for the 2020 season, with a clause to resume it next season. [21]

In June 2017, Vivo reached a sponsorship deal with FIFA to become the official smartphone brand of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. [22] The company also signed a deal with UEFA as an official partner of the UEFA Euro 2020 and UEFA Euro 2024, [23] and became a title sponsor of India's Pro Kabaddi League. [24]

Vivo has a sponsorship deal with the NBA in China, with Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry. He endorses the brand in China and the Philippines. [25]

In March 2024, Vivo became the main sponsor for Nepal Idol. They became the official smartphone brand for the television series. [26]

Controversy

IMEI and build number controversy in India

In June 2020, the cybercrime unit of Meerut Police revealed that more than 13,500 Vivo smartphones used in India were running on the same IMEI number. The IMEI number is a 15-digit code meant to be unique to every mobile device communication administration, that may be used for tracking criminals or stolen mobile phones. By using the same IMEI number for multiple devices, Vivo could have hampered police tracking of criminals or stolen devices. In 2017, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a statement that all mobile devices would be required to have a unique IMEI number. Failure to do so would be seen as tampering and could result in a fine or up to three years of imprisonment.

The events led to the police filing a case against Vivo and its service centre. The lapse reportedly came to light when a police officer gave his mobile phone to the staff at the cybercrime unit for examination, as the phone was not working properly despite being repaired at a Vivo service center in Meerut. The cybercrime unit found that the IMEI number of the device was different from the one printed on the box, and then forwarded the IMEI number to an unidentified Telephone Company providing telecommunications services for the handset and asked for the relevant data. The company informed that as of 24 September 2019, the same IMEI number had been running on 13,557 mobile phones in different states of the country. The Meerut police reportedly handed a notice to Vivo India's nodal officer Harmanjit Singh under Section 91 of the CrPC, and also registered a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. [27] [28] [29] [30]

Tax evasion allegation in India

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence of India (DRI) raided the offices of Vivo in July 2022 and accused the company of tax evasion. The company allegedly remitted almost half of its turnover out of India. [31] The Enforcement Directorate also blocked the bank accounts of the company to prevent further money laundering. [32] The agency also found that some top executives of Vivo who are Chinese had incorporated 23 shell companies in India, with the help of a Chartered Accountant, Nitin Grg. "These (23) companies are found to have transferred huge amounts of funds to Vivo India. Further, out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crore, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crore or almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China", the ED said in a statement. [33] [34] In October 2023, the Enforcement Directorate arrested the head of administration of Vivo India on money laundering charges. [35]

Notes

  1. ↑ Australia, [1] Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Mobile Equipment Identity</span> Cellphone identification code

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a numeric identifier, usually unique, for 3GPP and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone but can also be displayed on-screen on most phones by entering the MMI Supplementary Service code *#06# on the dialpad, or alongside other system information in the settings menu on smartphone operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Board of Control for Cricket in India</span> National governing body of cricket in India

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body of cricket in India. Its headquarters is situated at the cricket centre in Churchgate, Mumbai. The BCCI is the wealthiest governing body of cricket in the world.

Oppo is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong. Its major product lines include smartphones, smart devices, audio devices, power banks, and other electronic products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Premier League</span> Franchise T20 cricket league annually held in India

The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI in 2007, the league features ten city-based franchise teams. The IPL usually takes place during the summer, between March and May each year. It has an exclusive window in the ICC Future Tours Programme, resulting in fewer international cricket tours occurring during the IPL seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chennai Super Kings</span> Cricket franchise

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are a professional cricket franchise based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, that competes in the Indian Premier League. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India Cements through its Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited holding company. They have won a record five IPL titles, appeared in a record 10 finals and have qualified for the playoff stages 12 times out of the 14 seasons they have played, more than any other team. The team is currently captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad, after MS Dhoni stepped down. They are currently coached by Stephen Fleming. In January 2022, CSK became India's first unicorn sports enterprise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone</span> Portable device to make telephone calls using a radio link

A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, payments, multimedia playback and streaming, digital photography, and video games. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

Micromax Informatics is an Indian multinational manufacturer of consumer electronics and home appliances, headquartered in Gurugram. It was established in March 2000 as an IT software company operating in embedded systems. It entered the mobile phone business in 2008 and, by 2010, became one of the largest companies making low-cost feature phones in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karbonn Mobiles</span> Indian multinational electronics company

Karbonn is an Indian multinational electronics company, headquartered in Delhi. The company was founded in March 2009 and manufactures feature phones, smartphones, tablets and mobile phone accessories. Karbonn is a joint venture between United Telelinks Ltd., a Bangalore-based firm and Jaina Marketing Pvt. Ltd., headquartered in New Delhi.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the chief national competition regulator in India. It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. The CCI looks into cases and investigates them if the same has a negative impact on competition.

Narayanaswami Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist. He is a former Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and former President of the BCCI, the governing body for cricket in India. He is also the managing director of India Cements Limited. He is the owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) team Chennai Super Kings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xiaomi</span> Chinese electronics company

Xiaomi Corporation, commonly known as Xiaomi and registered as Xiaomi Inc., is a Chinese designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, automobiles and household hardware. It is the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, behind Samsung, most of which run on the MIUI operating system, which is based on the Android operating system. The company is ranked 338th and is the youngest company on the Fortune Global 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PureView</span> Nokia camera technology

Nokia PureView is the branding of a combination of technologies used in cameras of Nokia-branded smartphones, and previously, in phones by Microsoft Mobile. PureView was first introduced with Nokia 808 PureView.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honor (brand)</span> Smartphone brand

Honor is a Chinese consumer electronics brand majority-owned by Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co. Ltd, a state-owned enterprise controlled by the municipal government of Shenzhen. It was formerly a subsidiary of Huawei, who sold the brand in November 2020. Honor develops smartphones, tablet computers, wearables and mobile device softwares.

OnePlus Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., doing business as OnePlus, is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It is a subsidiary of Oppo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jio</span> Indian telecommunications company

Jio is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. Jio offers 4G and 4G+ services all over India and 5G service in many cities. Its 6G service is in the works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HMD Global</span> Finnish manufacturer of Nokia mobile phones, smartphones and tablets

Human Mobile Devices (HMD), formally HMD Global, is a Finnish mobile phone manufacturer. The company is made up of the mobile phone business that the Nokia Corporation sold to Microsoft in 2014, then bought back in 2016. HMD began marketing Nokia-branded smartphones and feature phones on 1 December 2016. The company has exclusive rights to the Nokia brand for mobile phones through a licensing agreement. The HMD brand was initially only used for corporate purposes and does not appear in advertising, whereas the name "Nokia Mobile" is used on social media. As it was launched, the acronym HMD stood for Hon Hai Mobile Devices. This was in reference to the main shareholder at the time of its creation: the Taiwanese group Foxconn. In January 2024, HMD rebranded to 'Human Mobile Devices', and will use their own branding on future devices alongside that of Nokia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foldable smartphone</span> Smartphone form factors that use flexible displays

A foldable smartphone is a smartphone with a folding form factor. It is reminiscent of the clamshell design of many earlier feature phones. Some variants of the concept use multiple touchscreen panels on a hinge, while other designs utilise a flexible display. Concepts of such devices date back as early as Nokia's "Morph" concept in 2008, and a concept presented by Samsung Electronics in 2013, while the first commercially available folding smartphones with OLED displays began to emerge in November 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JioCinema</span> Indian video streaming service

JioCinema is an Indian over-the-top media streaming service owned by Viacom18, a joint venture of Reliance Industries and Paramount Global. It offers free advertising- and subscription-based video on demand and live streaming content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Indian Premier League</span> 15th edition of the Indian Premier League

The 2022 Indian Premier League was the fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament was played from 26 March 2022 to 29 May 2022. The group stage of the tournament was played entirely in the state of Maharashtra, with Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune hosting matches.

Cashify is a recommerce company with headquarters in Gurgaon, India. It was founded in 2009. It operates as an online marketplace where users can sell their used electronic gadgets like mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, laptops and video game consoles to professional buyers. It also deals in refurbished devices.

References

  1. ↑ "HomePage | Vivo Australia".
  2. ↑ "About Vivo Company". Techs Genie. 24 May 2023.
  3. ↑ "A Look Inside: Vivo Tokyo R&D Center". TechPlugged. TechPlugged. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Anthony, Ogbonna (11 August 2021). "Vivo Bolsters its Global Manufacturing Network with Two More Production Bases". Techuncode. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  5. ↑ "Vivo among Top 3 in Market Share for the Philippines, Malaysia, and India". Pandaily. 16 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Vivo Mobile enters Myanmar market. Dealstreetasia.com (2015-03-27). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  7. ↑ "Chinese smartphone maker vivo Mobile set to enter India, to launch X5Max on Dec 15". Bgr.in. Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  8. ↑ Vivo Officially Launches Brand and X5Pro in Malaysia. Ipdatainfo.com (2015-06-25). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  9. ↑ Meet Vivo X5 Max – the world's slimmest smartphone at 4.75mm. Neotryx.com (2015-01-02). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  10. ↑ Mustafa, Onsa (29 June 2017). "World's 5th Most Selling Smartphone Brand, Vivo will Launch in Pakistan on July 5th 2017 – PhoneWorld". PhoneWorld. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  11. ↑ "vivo and ZEISS Enter Global Partnership for Mobile Imaging" . Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "Canalys: Apple retakes top spot in global smartphone market in Q4 2021". canalys. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  13. ↑ "vivo Archives". My Mobile WebSite. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  14. ↑ "Hong Kong Air Cargo ban on Vivo phones after pallets catch fire at airport". 12 April 2021.
  15. ↑ "vivo X Fold Guinness World Record Endurance 300000 Folds". 8 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  16. ↑ Khavanekar, Aditya (9 June 2022). "vivo X Fold successfully challenged the Guinness record: 300,000 folds in 11 days are still as new". Gamingsym. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  17. ↑ Hudson, Olivia. "This is BlueOS, the new Vivo operating system that wants to break with Android". Gearrice. Gearrice. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  18. ↑ Vivo bags IPL title sponsorship for two years. Cricbuzz.com (2015-10-19). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  19. ↑ Vivo Formally Announces Partnership With BCCI as IPL Sponsor. Thequint.com (2015-10-27). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  20. ↑ "vivo retains IPL title rights till 2022 after massive bid". Cricinfo. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  21. ↑ "IPL title sponsor: Dream 11 replaces Vivo as IPL 2020 title sponsor, to pay BCCI Rs 222 crore". www.timesnownews.com. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  22. ↑ "vivo wants you to know its name so much it's sponsoring the World Cup". The Verge. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  23. ↑ UEFA.com (20 October 2020). "Vivo becomes official partner of UEFA EURO 2020 and 2024 | Inside UEFA". UEFA.com. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  24. ↑ "Pro Kabaddi league: STAR Sports signs record five-year deal with vivo". Hindustan Times. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  25. ↑ Doland, Angela (24 April 2017). "Why Stephen Curry Is Plugging a Chinese Smartphone". Advertising Age. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  26. ↑ "Nepal Idol Season 5 starts in March 7". The Annapurna Express. 28 February 2024.
  27. ↑ "More than 13,500 Vivo phones running on same IMEI, Meerut police files case". The Indian Express. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  28. ↑ Banerjee, Prasid (5 June 2020). "Police confirms phones with same IMEI number were made by Vivo". Livemint. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  29. ↑ June 2020, Jitendra Soni 05 (5 June 2020). "Over 13000 Vivo phones found to be using same IMEI number". TechRadar India. Retrieved 6 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. ↑ Rai, Piyush (5 June 2020). "Cop dropped off phone for repairs, 'unique' IMEI found active on 13,500 phones". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  31. ↑ "Vivo India remitted about 50% of its turnover to China to avoid taxes: ED". Business Standard. 7 July 2022.
  32. ↑ "India raids vivo offices over money laundering allegations". TechCrunch. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  33. ↑ "DRI Says Vivo India Evaded Customs Duty Worth Rs 2,217 Crore". The Wire. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  34. ↑ "DRI detected customs evasion worth over ₹2.21 crore by Vivo India: Govt". Hindustan Times. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  35. ↑ "India arrests Chinese smartphone executive in fraud probe". CNN . 12 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.