OnePlus has established itself as one of the biggest smartphone brands in the world. What started as an enthusiast-focused company offering premium phones at budget-friendly prices now produces flagships like the OnePlus 15 and OnePlus 15R, which compete with premium phones from Samsung and Apple. However, knowing who owns OnePlus isn’t as simple as knowing who produces Apple’s phones. Like many Chinese companies, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, and OnePlus is just a front of a larger conglomerate.
The current OnePlus functions as a sub-brand of Oppo. The parent company behind both is called OPlus, which was formerly part of the now-defunct BBK Electronics. Oppo produces its own phones under the Oppo name while also running OnePlus and RealMe as sub-brands. What differentiates OnePlus from RealMe and even Oppo is its history and how it works; Oppo and RealMe never managed to penetrate the US market, while OnePlus consolidated itself as a competitive force. It made its name thanks to the efforts of former Oppo executives and the two creators of OnePlus, Pete Lau and Carl Pei, the latter of whom later founded the Nothing smartphone brand.
The history of ownership of OnePlus
When OnePlus started out, it presented itself as a small, independent company aspiring to create premium flagship phones at cheaper prices. It was later discovered that the company was still backed by Oppo in its early days, but it was not an official sub-brand. The two companies officially merged in 2021 and current OnePlus phones are treated the same way Oppo treats RealMe, as a dedicated sub-brand.
Zooming out, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, RealMe, and iQOO all operated under the BBK Electronics umbrella. Although all of these brands operated largely independently and targeted different demographics, they were backed by the same tech giant and often shared supply chains and factories. BBK Electronics was not registered in 2023 and all companies operating under its umbrella shared ownership. Oppo and its sub-brands RealMe and OnePlus are brought under the OPlus umbrella, while Vivo and iQOO have separated into another independent entity using the Vivo name.
The reason for this split has to do with how the global market perceives large, faceless Chinese companies with many individual brands under their name. With OnePlus, Oppo, RealMe and Vivo dominating all global smartphone markets while being owned by the same giant, it was only a matter of time before a restructuring occurred. All of these changes have made OnePlus the brand we know today, and while it has changed a lot from the enthusiast-focused brand it once was, it continues to produce great smartphones for the average user.
