How China's OnePlus makes its way to the world

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Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has just announced its latest model, the OnePlus 5, with raised specs and a higher price.

One interesting thing about this company is, to many people's surprise, it sells more phones outside its home country than inside. That's quite different from other famous Chinese phone brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo or Vivo.

How did OnePlus make it? Why are its phones more appealing to global users instead of domestic ones?

Cost-effectiveness

A solid phone at a relatively low price can be very attractive. OnePlus has a habit of stacking high-end hardware in its products, while keeping the price at a mid-range level.

OnePlus 5's price is more expensive than its predecessors, starting at 479 USD. /OnePlus Photo‍

Similar strategies can be seen in a lot of Chinese smartphone brands, like Xiaomi's flagship Mi series, Huawei's Honor series, and more.

This strategy gives buyers an impression that they're spending the money at the right place.

Open-source allure

OnePlus cooperated with famous Android customizer CyanogenMod (CM), who designed a dedicated operation system (OS) for some OnePlus smartphones.

CM was welcomed by a lot of smartphone geeks with loads of additional features to make Android better suit their needs.

It's quite possible for heavy smartphone users to choose OnePlus for official support from CM.

But OnePlus' agreement with CM ended in April 2015, followed by the death of the OS in December 2016, as more and more smartphone makers shut the door for OS customization.

Lineage OS is the successor of the dead CyanogenMod. /Facebook Screenshot

Social advertising

As a small company derived from another Chinese brand Oppo, OnePlus has limited resources for advertising. So they decided to go smart.

They created a string of controversial campaigns to get the brand known to Western audiences, such as:

– Smash your old phone to get an OnePlus for just one USD.

– People must obtain OnePlus' invitation to buy the phone;

– Hot ladies who dare to post their pictures get the phone earlier.

Though some campaigns were heavily criticized by the media and netizens, OnePlus has definitely made itself heard.

English-speaking staff at OnePlus introduces OnePlus 5 in a YouTube live event on June 21, 2017. /YouTube Screenshot

On its official forum, OnePlus staff try their best to listen to all users, and respond to them. The "after-sale" experience was also adopted earlier by Xiaomi.

After all, OnePlus is a solid phone brand that's not overpriced, powered by welcomed open-source software, and sold with a supporting community.

But OnePlus 5 has lost some of its most competitive strength. So can it still be a success? We'll have to wait for the sales numbers to say for sure, but regardless, OnePlus has introduced a potentially great way for Chinese phone companies to go global.