INSIDE PROJECT STARLIGHT: ONEPLUS' RS 6,000 CRORE INVESTMENT PLAN FOR INDIA

OnePlus' Project Starlight aims to address reliability concerns in India, focussing on product improvements, customer service, and innovation

- Sahil Mohan Gupta

THE SHENZHEN Bay Tower, the most expensive office building in the Silicon Valley of China, houses one of the world's leading consumer electronics giants Oppo- and its sister company, OnePlus. OnePlus, in particular, has not only made waves in India but has become a global powerhouse in the industry.

OnePlus occupies over a third of the 60floor tower's space where it unveiled Project Starlight, an initiative led by its newly appointed India CEO, Robin Liu and Vice President Ramagopala Reddy. This project aims to reinvent OnePlus's business in the Indian market by investing Rs 2,000 crore per year from 2025 to 2027. It has already invested Rs 1,000 crore in 2019 for three years which included its Hyderabad R&D centre.

OnePlus has faced a challenging year in India, and Robin Liu has taken on the task of addressing these issues head-on. During a closed-door briefing on the 3rd floor of the Shenzhen Bay Tower, Liu presented a comprehensive overview of Project Starlight.

The project is a direct response to the reliability concerns that have plagued OnePlus smartphones in recent years, particularly those featuring AMOLED screen technology.

Since 2021, a rampant "green screen" issue has emerged in OnePlus devices, drawing the ire of customers on social media. Project Starlight aims to address these issues. The OnePlus 13, which launches globally including in India, will be one of the first phones to benefit from the project.

BW Businessworld got a behind-the-scenes peek into how OnePlus is tackling these issues with a tour of its assembly line, where all the improvements, testing, and quality control checks have been implemented. These improvements will filter down to its facilities in India, which will manufacture the OnePlus 13 smartphone.

But Project Starlight also addresses other issues OnePlus has grappled with.