Another Chinese smartphone maker is launching in the Netherlands: Vivo

In recent years, many Chinese technology brands in Europe have started to sell smartphones. Despite Huawei’s great sales successes and Xiaomi’s significant progress in terms of market share, the Samsung-Apple duo is by no means broken. This does not prevent new Chinese players from entering the Dutch market, either.

We can now also add Vivo, which has entered the Dutch market with three smartphones: two budget devices (Vivo Y76 5G and Vivo Y33S) and the top device, the Vivo X80 Pro. Smartphones do not look so striking because it seems difficult to distinguish smartphones from countless other devices from Chinese brands. Because Vivo is trying to impress, especially in the field of technical features, and to offer budget smartphones at low prices.

You may have seen the name Vivo before. For example, they were one of the main sponsors of the previous World Cup and have no moral objections to tying their brand name to the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.

Although Vivo was one of the first brands to introduce the pop-up selfie camera a few years ago, there are currently no unique features and innovations available. Just like Samsung, it would be unwise to bet on longer update support for Android. But when asked, it was revealed that Vivo had no plans for that.

What is there to gain for Vivo?

To answer this question, we need to zoom out a bit. Vivo is one of BBK Electronics’ many brands. This Chinese mothership is the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, despite the brand name unknown here. BBK seems keen to gain a foothold in the Netherlands. By flooding the market with smartphones from brands that are hard to distinguish, seemingly unconnected.

OnePlus was the first BBK Electronics brand to appear in the Netherlands. Then comes Oppo, Realme and now Vivo. If we look at Statcounter’s market share figures, the tactic doesn’t seem to bear fruit. Samsung and Apple jointly control almost 80% of the market. Despite the new strategy of a large number of smartphones, OnePlus has a market share of 1.75%. Oppo is doing a little better, especially putting aside budget devices: 2.99%. Realme sells too few smartphones to be included in the chart.

Putting that in perspective, that market share is about the same size as Huawei, which has pretty much given up on smartphone sales since the US trade ban. The biggest Chinese competitor is Xiaomi. This brand is also populating the Dutch market with brands and devices like Poco and RedMi. Like BBK brands, Xiaomi seems to pay little attention to software and update policy. Xiaomi sells smartphones below production price and earns more with personalized advertising in apps and operating system. This makes smartphones appear too good to be true in feature lists.

Unfortunately, the three Vivo smartphones seem to stand out very little compared to Oppo, OnePlus and Realme smartphones. The press releases of the three smartphones specifically highlight the camera functions that actually seem only to be the domain of Samsung, Google and Apple. The Vivo X80 Pro even has four cameras and a Zeiss logo. Our upcoming reviews will show if the cameras can really compete with Apple, Samsung and Google.

The Vivo X80 Pro will be available from July 25 for 1099 euros. The Vivo Y76 and Vivo Y33 retail for 219 and 299 euros, respectively.