Vivo (technology company)

Vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong that designs and develops smartphones, smartphone accessories, software and online services. The company develops software for its phones, distributed through its V-Appstore, with iManager included in their proprietary, Android-based operating system, Origin OS in Mainland China, and Funtouch OS elsewhere. It has 10,000 employees, with 10 R&D centers in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Xi’an, Taipei, Tokyo, and San Diego. [3][4]

Not to be confused with Vivo (telecommunications company), Asus Vivo, VIVO (software), or Vevo.
For other uses, see Vivo (disambiguation).

Vivo Communication Technology
Native name
维沃移动通信有限公司
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryConsumer electronics
FoundedMay 22, 2009 (May 22, 2009)
FounderShen Wei (沈炜)
Headquarters
Dongguan, Guangdong
,
China
Area served
Worldwide[lower-alpha 1]
Key people
  • Shen Wei (Founder & CEO)
  • Baishan Hu (Executive Vice President & COO)
  • Spark Ni (Senior Vice President & CMO)
  • Yujian Shi (Senior Vice President & CTO)
ProductsSmartphones
Hi-Fi
Software and Online services
Number of employees
40,000[2] (2022)
ParentBBK Electronics
SubsidiariesiQOO
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese维沃移动通信有限公司
Traditional Chinese維沃移動通信有限公司
Literal meaningVivo Mobile Communications Co., Ltd.
Websitevivo.com

History

Since its founding in 2009, Vivo has expanded its global market, serving over 400 million users with its mobile products and services, to over 60 countries and regions. [5]

In 2017, Vivo entered the smartphone market in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.[6][7][8][9] In June 2017, it entered the Pakistan smartphone market and the Vivo brand is currently experiencing rapid growth and popularity in the country.[10] In October 2020, vivo announced that it would begin to sell its products also in Europe.

Vivo X60 featured the Zeiss co-engineered imaging system

On 17 December 2020, Vivo and Zeiss announced a long-term strategic partnership to jointly promote and develop breakthrough innovations in mobile imaging technology. The first "Vivo Zeiss co-engineered imaging system" will be featured in the Vivo X60 series. As part of the collaboration agreement, Vivo and Zeiss will establish the Vivo Zeiss Imaging Lab, a joint R&D program to innovate mobile imaging technology for Vivo's flagship smartphones.[11]

In 2021, Vivo was ranked among the top 5 smartphone makers, achieving a global market share of 8%.” [12]

In April 2021, three pallets of Vivo phones[13] caught fire at Hong Kong International Airport, prompting a ban on air freight of Vivo phones through Hong Kong.[14]

In June 2022, Vivo entered the world-famous Guinness Book of Records.[15] It achieved the record for the "Longest Video" in which its flagship device Vivo X Fold happened to be folded over 300,000 times for a total length of 270 hours or 11 days and 6 hours.[16]

Marketing

In October 2015, Vivo became the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) under a two-year deal starting in the 2016 season.[17][18] In July 2017, the deal was extended until 2022.[19] However, in response to the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes between India and China, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was criticised in India for allowing a Chinese company to be the title sponsor of the league. Vivo and BCCI mutually agreed to suspend the deal for the 2020 season, with a clause to resume it next season.[20]

In June 2017, Vivo reached a sponsorship deal with FIFA to become the official smartphone brand of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.[21] The company also signed a deal with UEFA as an official partner of the UEFA Euro 2020 and UEFA Euro 2024,[22] and became a title sponsor of India's Pro Kabaddi League.[23]

Vivo has a sponsorship deal with the NBA in China, with Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry. He endorses the brand in China and the Philippines.[24]

Controversy

IMEI and build number controversy in India

In June 2020, the cybercrime unit of Meerut Police revealed that more than 13,500 Vivo smartphones used in India were running on the same IMEI number. The IMEI number is a 15-digit code meant to be unique to every mobile device communication administration, that may be used for tracking criminals or stolen mobile phones. By using the same IMEI number for multiple devices, Vivo could have hampered police tracking of criminals or stolen devices. In 2017, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a statement that all mobile devices would be required to have a unique IMEI number. Failure to do so would be seen as tampering and could result in a fine or up to three years of imprisonment.

The events led to the police filing a case against Vivo and its service centre. The lapse reportedly came to light when a police officer gave his mobile phone to the staff at the cybercrime unit for examination, as the phone was not working properly despite being repaired at a Vivo service center in Meerut. The cybercrime unit found that the IMEI number of the device was different from the one printed on the box, and then forwarded the IMEI number to an unidentified Telephone Company providing telecommunications services for the handset and asked for the relevant data. The company informed that as of 24 September 2019, the same IMEI number had been running on 13,557 mobile phones in different states of the country. The Meerut police reportedly handed a notice to Vivo India's nodal officer Harmanjit Singh under Section 91 of the CrPC, and also registered a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.[25][26][27][28]

Tax evasion allegation in India

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence of India (DRI) raided the offices of Vivo in July 2022 and accused the company of tax evasion. The company allegedly remitted almost half of its turnover out of India.[29] The Enforcement Directorate also blocked the bank accounts of the company to prevent further money laundering.[30] The agency also found that some top executives of Vivo who are Chinese had incorporated 23 shell companies in India, with the help of a Chartered Accountant, Nitin Grg. "These (23) companies are found to have transferred huge amounts of funds to Vivo India. Further, out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crore, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crore or almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China", the ED said in a statement.[31][32] In October 2023, the Enforcement Directorate arrested the head of administration of Vivo India on money laundering charges.[33]

Notes
  1. Australia,[1] Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Ghana

References
  1. "HomePage | Vivo Australia".
  2. "About Vivo Company". Techs Genie. 24 May 2023.
  3. "A Look Inside: Vivo Tokyo R&D Center". TechPlugged. TechPlugged. 22 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  4. Anthony, Ogbonna (11 August 2021). "Vivo Bolsters its Global Manufacturing Network with Two More Production Bases". Techuncode. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  5. "Vivo among Top 3 in Market Share for the Philippines, Malaysia, and India". Pandaily. 16 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. Vivo Mobile enters Myanmar market. Dealstreetasia.com (2015-03-27). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  7. "Chinese smartphone maker vivo Mobile set to enter India, to launch X5Max on Dec 15". Bgr.in. Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  8. Vivo Officially Launches Brand and X5Pro in Malaysia. Ipdatainfo.com (2015-06-25). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  9. Meet Vivo X5 Max – the world's slimmest smartphone at 4.75mm. Neotryx.com (2015-01-02). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  10. Mustafa, Onsa (29 June 2017). "World's 5th Most Selling Smartphone Brand, Vivo will Launch in Pakistan on July 5th 2017 – PhoneWorld". PhoneWorld. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  11. "vivo and ZEISS Enter Global Partnership for Mobile Imaging". Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  12. "Canalys: Apple retakes top spot in global smartphone market in Q4 2021". canalys. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  13. "vivo Archives". My Mobile WebSite. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  14. "Hong Kong Air Cargo ban on Vivo phones after pallets catch fire at airport". 12 April 2021.
  15. "vivo X Fold Guinness World Record Endurance 300000 Folds". 8 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  16. Khavanekar, Aditya (9 June 2022). "vivo X Fold successfully challenged the Guinness record: 300,000 folds in 11 days are still as new". Gamingsym. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  17. Vivo bags IPL title sponsorship for two years. Cricbuzz.com (2015-10-19). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  18. Vivo Formally Announces Partnership With BCCI as IPL Sponsor. Thequint.com (2015-10-27). Retrieved on 2017-01-03.
  19. "vivo retains IPL title rights till 2022 after massive bid". Cricinfo. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  20. "IPL title sponsor: Dream 11 replaces Vivo as IPL 2020 title sponsor, to pay BCCI Rs 222 crore". www.timesnownews.com. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  21. "vivo wants you to know its name so much it's sponsoring the World Cup". The Verge. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  22. UEFA.com (20 October 2020). "Vivo becomes official partner of UEFA EURO 2020 and 2024 | Inside UEFA". UEFA.com. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  23. "Pro Kabaddi league: STAR Sports signs record five-year deal with vivo". Hindustan Times. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  24. Doland, Angela (24 April 2017). "Why Stephen Curry Is Plugging a Chinese Smartphone". Advertising Age. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  25. "More than 13,500 Vivo phones running on same IMEI, Meerut police files case". The Indian Express. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  26. Banerjee, Prasid (5 June 2020). "Police confirms phones with same IMEI number were made by Vivo". Livemint. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  27. June 2020, Jitendra Soni 05 (5 June 2020). "Over 13000 Vivo phones found to be using same IMEI number". TechRadar India. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  28. Rai, Piyush (5 June 2020). "Cop dropped off phone for repairs, 'unique' IMEI found active on 13,500 phones". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  29. "Vivo India remitted about 50% of its turnover to China to avoid taxes: ED". Business Standard. 7 July 2022.
  30. "India raids vivo offices over money laundering allegations". TechCrunch. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  31. "DRI Says Vivo India Evaded Customs Duty Worth Rs 2,217 Crore". The Wire. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  32. "DRI detected customs evasion worth over ₹2.21 crore by Vivo India: Govt". Hindustan Times. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  33. "India arrests Chinese smartphone executive in fraud probe". CNN. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
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