Who owns Oppo?

Oppo is a Chinese electronics brand with a core line of Android smartphones. In the West, the company is less known than its subsidiary OnePlus, a brand co-founded by one of its late engineers, Pete Lau, who has since returned to Oppo as an executive. OnePlus had the ambition to establish itself as a value for money phone manufacturer in the West, particularly in North America, where other Chinese brands have failed. All the more surprising that the company has decided to withdraw from these markets in 2026.

You might be curious about picking up an Oppo phone on eBay or even going through the import challenge. If so, you will probably also have questions about the company. For example, who actually owns Oppo? And is it even possible to get an Oppo phone to work on a US wireless carrier? Well, the short answers to both questions are that Oppo is a private company and it is possible to install an Oppo device on certain cellular networks, including those operating on T-Mobile’s network.

Oppo traces its origins to 1995, when Duan Yongping founded home appliance maker BBK Electronics in China. In 2004, Duan and one of his protégés founded Oppo, specializing in media players. Just like Apple, which moved from iPods to iPhones, in 2009 Oppo focused on smartphones. Through these businesses and other investments, Duan has accumulated over $1 billion in net worth.

Most market research and media reports group Oppo, OnePlus, and another smartphone maker, Vivo, into the same BBK portfolio. However, The Wire discovered in 2020 that only Vivo is directly owned by BBK. Oppo’s largest shareholder, with a 61 percent stake, is its associated workers’ union committee – the committee, like all other organized unions in China, is ultimately managed by the central government. Private players, mainly through an offshore holding company, account for the remaining 39 percent. Duan would have a minor stake in Oppo.

The AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon websites each have a “Bring Your Own Phone” section where you can check your device’s network compatibility by entering its IMEI. That said, the tool isn’t really useful if you haven’t purchased the phone you want to use in advance.

In the era of 5G and 4G technologies, most phones sold worldwide support a wide range of cellular spectrum and therefore should be able to work on most networks, regardless of region. However, many service providers will only allow devices that have been tested and certified for use on their network to connect to that network. Both AT&T and Verizon operate lists of certified devices, so you almost certainly won’t have an Oppo phone on those airwaves.

T-Mobile customers have reported being able to integrate foreign brand phones on the network, as well as prepaid carriers operating the same network, including Metro by T-Mobile and Mint Mobile. Be careful though, your device may not support all bands in T-Mobile’s spectrum portfolio, so you may not be able to access the fastest speeds or features like Voice over 5G or LTE.