From Underdog to Front Runner: Sky Li Overcoming the Odds With realme

Sky Li has always been an outlier. As a young boy with a knack for going against the grain and forging his own path, Li developed a particular set of skills. That evolved throughout his career, culminating in the founding and leadership of realme, the 7th largest and fastest-growing smartphone brand in the world. One skill in particular has enabled Li to emerge as an underdog able challenge the world’s biggest phone brands: not being afraid to dream big. 

Built on the premise that high-quality gadgets need not cost a kidney, realme’s products and brand values have taken the world by storm. Young consumers and fans wait anxiously for each product release and evangelize the brand on social media. Today, realme products are sold in 61 markets globally. The company has become one of the top five brands in 14 markets including India, Indonesia, Russia, Greece, Egypt and the Philippines. Li’s success of achieving over 85 million users worldwide, however, did not come overnight.

Dream Big

In the early 2000s, China was just opening up. To a dreamer like Li, it was heaven on earth. A graduate from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Li was swept up in China’s technology craze and joined BBK Group, one of the earliest consumer electronics makers in China at the time.

Li quickly rose through the ranks, amassing experience and skills in the electronics industry. As head of OPPO’s overseas operations, Li gained critical insights into expansion plans and dealing with local issues. More importantly, during one of his business trips to Gurugram, India in May 2018, a conversation between Li and Ajay Veer Yadav, the Vice President of Flipkart—India’s largest e-commerce platform—confirmed Li’s observation that the country’s youths consumers were over-promised but underserved.

This insight laid the foundation for realme’s success. With the support of the youths as consumers, realme expanded rapidly and realized its true purpose: to disrupt the technology markets by offering an alternative vision of courage and strength, enabled by cutting-edge technology.

Emboldened by this vision, realme shocked the global smartphone market, posting a strong sales performance for 11 consecutive quarters by selling high-quality products at competitive prices. Its achievements include being the first company to launch a 5G phone under US$300. Its phones were the first in the world with a 64-megapixel camera. And realme was one of the first to introduce the 125W UltraDart charging technology and use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip.

realme soon turned its sights on the middle and high-end markets. This year, it launched its ‘flagship-killer’ phone, the realme GT, targeting European markets that were traditionally strongholds of major global brands. Working with partners such as Vodafone, realme packs value and prestige into a very attractive high-quality product and brand promise.

To accelerate market disruption, realme just announced at its inaugural 5G summit that it would enable 100 million young consumers to use 5G smartphones within the next three years. It also revealed that new models in its GT series—realme 5G performance and camera flagships— will launch in June and July 2021, respectively, as part of an initiative to encourage the global adoption of 5G.

Delivering AI Innovation

It is this spirit of over-delivering on its promises that has been realme’s secret weapon. This competitive nature stems from Li, who has cut his teeth in some of the world’s most challenging markets. Not content with just the smartphone market, Li’s ambition has seen realme take a great leap forward by investing in artificial intelligence and combining it with the Internet of Things.

realme revealed at its GT Global Launch that its goal is to build a full AIOT ecosystem for global young users within the next five years. This is a new frontier that only innovative firms can compete in. realme is at the forefront of this wave.

The company aims to create a complete AIOT ecosystem called TechLife that includes products for individuals to use and smart home products for the family. realme has named it the 1+5+T strategy. 1 is the mobile phone, 5 stands for TWS, wearable, TV, smart speaker, laptop, and T stands for realme’s AIOT brand TechLife. Once launched, all TechLife ecosystem products can be connected to realme Link app to create a full experience of smart home.

Listening to Consumers

Li’s goal is not just to revolutionize technology, because without its users, products are merely white elephants. realme embodies this philosophy by obsessively putting the user first. The core product team spends good time trawling through comments from buyers online to incorporate their suggestions into the next updates or releases. This strategy sets realme up to be a reliable brand whose quality products attract customers for themselves.

realme’s impressive records speak volumes of Li’s strong belief in building a smartphone for the youth. Not only has realme secured its spot as one of the top five best-selling smartphone brands in India, it even managed to achieve a record breaking sales of two million units during Diwali, one of the country’s most important festivals.

Even tough times cannot slow realme down. It was one of the most resilient brands of 2020, with a 157% growth in sales globally during that period—one of only two companies to achieve positive growth. This is parallel to the difficult start that realme had in gaining consumer trust when they expanded to different markets right from the get go. Today, the brand continues to wow consumers with products that deliver both sleek design and superior performance.

Dare to Leap

Industry watchers and fans alike have continued to marvel at the speed of which realme is conquering new ground. Li credits this pace to the unshakeable belief of its employees and its leadership. He sees being the underdog as a position of strength. Being ‘Proud to be young’ and ‘Daring to leap’, realme has embraced its slogans with fervent belief.

This has inspired trust and a dynamic work environment. “Young people are hungry, curious, and passionate,” Li said. “I have the utmost trust in my team and let them make all the final decisions. Right now, I’m more of a visionary leader that sets the direction of the company. I’ve never been a CEO before, but there’s one thing I do know—the only way to overcome adversity is to not be afraid of it and direct all your energy to face it.”

Together with his team, Li is the embodiment of the “Dare to Leap'' spirit. He pushes the team to conquer different ventures, growing the brand into one that can influence consumers to take the leap forward as well. In a refreshing move, Li has also eradicated the Chinese term for boss “zong” (总) in the office, hence promoting a hierarchy-free workplace to encourage collaboration. The unique force behind realme’s ambitious global expansion is its team of young employees that are mostly under the age of 30.

The Underdog Mentality

A key attitude that Li espouses is to keep humble while dreaming big and always adopt an ‘underdog mentality’. Li wants to ‘make sure they (industry giants) take notice of us. We will flip the challenge on our opponents and reset the game. Rivals fuel our ambition. When nobody thinks we will win, we will surprise the competition.’

Through Li, realme has found itself a tenacious leader ‘daring to lead’ from the forefront. realme continues to take big, confident steps towards their goals with an investment of US$300 million globally in 5G technology research and product development, as well as in promoting 5G usage around the world within the next two years.

In three years, realme has embodied the best of Li, tenacious, focused and daring to leap into an unknown future in order to discover the limits of oneself. It is now an affordable smartphone brand for the youth and Li himself attributed realme’s success to three factors: brand positioning, the quality product itself and an efficient sales model. With a bright future ahead and so much potential to develop, there is no telling how high realme will soar in the next three years.