China's Oppo sees AI driving demand, not worried about a bubble

By Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) -Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is seeing signs of new artificial intelligence features in phones helping boost demand in China and is upbeat about growing in Europe, unfazed by the risk of an AI bubble in the industry, a top executive said on Tuesday.

Oppo's Chief Executive for Europe, Elvis Zhou, told Reuters its observation of the Chinese market had led it to believe that "AI will drive people to think about replacing their phones".

"So we believe that with AI, we will see that the overall market will also grow in the smartphone industry," he said, speaking in Mandarin through a translator. He spoke during a launch in Barcelona of its phone model Find X9 Pro, which includes AI features.

Zhou said company surveys were showing that users under 35 were particularly driven by AI features in their phones, including for translation and photo editing.

"I don't think it's a bubble for our industry," he said, referring to AI.

Announcements of multi-billion-dollar investments in AI have raised concerns among investors in recent months about the formation of a bubble reminiscent of the 1990s dotcom boom that subsequently crashed.

Zhou said Oppo saw the European market as second only to China in terms of growth potential. It would not be driven by prices, as Oppo considers it a market for high-end smartphones, but rather by phone features such as durability, he added.

In the second quarter of this year, Oppo ranked fifth among phone brands in terms of shipments to Western Europe, according to data provided by the company.

(Reporting by Joan Faus; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Aidan Lewis)

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