BBK

BBK Electronics Corporation was a Chinese multinational consumer electronics conglomerate founded by Duan Yongping in Dongguan, Guangdong, in 1995. Duan left the educational-computer maker Subor to start the company, initially releasing corded telephones in 1996 and then a line of student computers that made BBK one of the three major educational-computer brands in China. The group was organised around three factories, each of which grew into a major consumer-electronics company: the AV factory (predecessor of OPPO), the telephone factory (predecessor of vivo) and the computer and video-game factory (Little Genius). In 1999 the three factories were split into fully independent companies that still shared most of the original BBK sales channels. At its peak BBK was one of the largest smartphone groups in the world. In the first quarter of 2017, combined shipments of its brands reached 56.7 million units, briefly placing the group in second place globally behind Samsung. Its brands OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, Realme and iQOO are consistently ranked among the top five smartphone makers worldwide, and the group also marketed Blu-ray players, headphones, headphone amplifiers and smartwatches, notably under the OPPO Digital Hi-Fi label. The group's headquarters and production base were located in Chang'an, Dongguan, where it was the largest local taxpayer. In 2020 the brands announced in-house chip research and development, with vivo partnering with MediaTek. On 7 April 2023 BBK Electronics was deregistered after its component brands were split into separate companies, reportedly to reduce regulatory scrutiny on the conglomerate. As of 2026 the surviving brands are OPPO (with OnePlus and Realme), and vivo (with iQOO).