Vivo is one of the leading smartphone brands globally, with a significant share in the global smartphone market.  Bangladesh in South Asia has been an important part of the company’s business roadmap. A couple of years ago, vivo opened a mobile phone assembly plant in the country, demonstrating its local commitment to the market. Managing Director of vivo Bangladesh Duke in a recent interview shares how the company fared in the pandemic, its future plans, and other related matters.

The pandemic disrupted all businesses. What has the situation been like for vivo?

The unprecedented circumstances made everything hard to manage remotely while keeping employees and front-line staff safe and healthy.

We are ensuring that we work closely with our eco-system partners and e-commerce channel partners to stay close to customers at all levels. I am grateful to all the employees and customers for believing in vivo to provide best-in-class technology smartphones and fulfil all your needs in the best way possible.

However, despite the tough situation last year, vivo is now a family of 400 million users worldwide. And it is being built upon a strong understanding of consumer preferences.

What did you focus on product-wise last year?

The last year saw the launch of industry-leading camera smartphones by vivo to make each day special for customers who love to take selfies with sleek and fashionable devices. The brand witnessed the successful launch of handsets from the Y series and V series, packed with unique features designed to empower young minds by offering excellent mobile technologies, innovative solutions, and powerful performance.

A big credit goes to our team of world-class designers who strategically devised valuable features for photography enthusiasts and the young generation.

Where does Bangladesh fit into vivo’s journey as a smartphone brand?

We are strongly guided by the ‘More Global, More Local’ approach, and are focused on enhancing our local appeal and upscale our presence in the local mobile market to embrace evolving consumer demands. In the past 25 years, vivo has gained a deep understanding of consumers’ differentiated needs through comprehensive research. With constant consumer insight-driven R&D and innovation efforts, the brand has developed generations of mobile products favoured and trusted by consumers.

In 2019, we opened a mobile assembly plant, demonstrating our commitment towards ‘Made-in-Bangladesh’. We are a young and future-ready brand fostering the spirit of meaningful innovation and products that suit consumer needs.

What is the significance of your partnership with ZEISS?

We recently partnered with ZEISS for mobile imaging. Vivo and ZEISS together intend to make the strategic collaboration – a starting point to create innovative and fresh opportunities for mobile imaging that will enable more creativity and will support the long-term development of the entire industry at large. X60 Pro is one of the inaugural devices from the X series to carry vivo ZEISS co-engineered imaging system.

How has your global market share been like since the pandemic hit world economy?

It gives me immense pleasure to share that according to the latest annual data from IDC, vivo, a leading global smartphone brand, ranked 5th in the global smartphone market in 2020 with a market share of 8.6% and shipments exceeding 110 million devices, despite the pandemic. We will continue to innovate for a better tomorrow and enrich our customers’ lives with extraordinary technologies with the same spirit as always.

Is there anything you want to say to your Bangladeshi customers?

Following the Benfen philosophy, we are committed to bringing the best technology and ultimate user experience to the users. As a future-ready and youth-oriented brand, we must go all-out to offer innovative smartphones based on the consumers’ needs.

We are privileged to serve you and your community, and will continue to develop the products with improved concepts and features to keep up with your interest, trust, and provide limitless possibilities to unfold the potential of mobile tech.

TH