vivo Bets on AI and Family Robots to Shape our Connected Future

To deliver for consumers worldwide, design-driven technologyfirm vivo is transforming smartphones into AI phones.

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THERE IS AN OLD SAYING THAT ALL politics is local. That's also true for business. Just ask vivo. When the Guangdong-based technology firm decided to go global in 2014, just three years after launching its first smartphone in China, success was anything but guaranteed. Some Chinese firms had taken foreign markets by storm. But others had faltered. However, vivo's Chief Operating Officer Hu Baishan was confident his firm held the key to success, and it was not just cutting-edge technology. “We have a saying at vivo: ‘More Local, More Global.’ Because we believe that deep localization is the first step to globalization,” Hu says.

Considering vivo's results, it’s hard to argue with Hu. Last year, the firm shipped over 100 million phones to its sales networks in more than 60 countries while seizing first place in the Mainland China market. Over 500 million people worldwide have purchased a vivo smartphone, selecting from an impressive array of models with features designed to meet the different needs of different customers in different markets. Putting the user first has put vivo in first place in China. Aiming for similar heights worldwide, the firm is plunging headlong into artificial intelligence, robotics, smart manufacturing and other state-of-the-art technologies at its more than half-dozen R&D labs. When embracing AI and other advanced tech, vivo still puts users first.