By LIN Teng

During Xiaomi's annual product launch, CEO LEI Jun devoted a lot of time to badmouthing the One Plus 11. Xiaomi phones, said Lei, are much better than One Plus phones. And he said it many times, in many different ways.

This move stirred up LI Jie, President of One Plus, who counterattacked during his own product launch event on Wednesday. One Plus phones, said Li, are much better than Xiaomi phones. And he too said it many times, in many different ways.

But it didn't end there. An hour later, LU Weibing, president of Xiaomi, took off his jacket and marched into the ring. Lu took to Weibo to mock One Plus, insinuating they were wasting time on trivial matters like sniping at the competition. 

When asked about his unorthodox attention to "trivial matters," Li claimed his behavior was a reaction to Lei, rather than an act of aggression. "He started it!" Li said, though not in so many words.

To observers, this exchange shows little more than that things are getting pretty heated at the top of China's phone empires. If the cracks aren't exactly starting to show, investors are becoming aware that there might actually be cracks.

One Plus and Xiaomi are both brands that cater to a demographic of tech-savvy young who value performance and shop online. In the first half of 2023, One Plus sales grew 335 percent, and this makes Xiaomi very uneasy indeed. The One Plus Ace, which previously accounted for only 3 percent of Redmi K sales, is up to 56 percent.

One Plus parent, Oppo, has also done well, topping the charts by shipping 24.5 million phones during H1.

Founded in 2013 by LIU Zuohu, now VP at Oppo, One Plus gained popularity among tech enthusiasts in the United States and India. In 2021, One Plus came to China with ambitious expansion plans. By the end of 2022, Oppo had invested 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in One Plus.

Given the circumstances, Xiaomi's fear is understandable. Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology reveals a 4.8 percent decline in total shipments in China during H1. New entrants like One Plus pose a serious threat to dominant players, especially when they turn out to be other dominant players in disguise.