Carl Pei
Carl Pei, or Pei Yu (Chinese: 裴宇; pinyin: Péi Yǔ; born September 11, 1989), is a Chinese-born Swedish[2] Internet entrepreneur. He co-founded OnePlus, along with Pete Lau, in 2013 and was the former director of OnePlus Global. Pei left OnePlus in September 2020 to pursue other ventures in China after seven years of working with the company.[3]
Carl Pei | |
---|---|
裴宇 | |
Pei in 2019 | |
Born | |
Citizenship | Sweden[2] |
Occupation | Internet entrepreneur |
Known for | Co-founder OnePlus Founder Nothing |
Title | Director, OnePlus Global |
Early life
Pei was born in 1989 in Beijing, China, shortly after which he along with his parents moved to the United States. A couple of years later, his family moved to Sweden, where Pei grew up.[4] Pei pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in 2008 at the Stockholm School of Economics, but dropped out in 2011 to work full-time in the Chinese smartphone industry.[5][6]
Career
Pei joined Nokia in 2010, and worked at the company for three months. After Nokia, the fan website Pei had created about Meizu had caught the attention of the company's Hong Kong branch, where Pei started working in Meizu's marketing team in 2011.
In November 2012, Pei joined Oppo as its international markets manager, where he worked directly under Pete Lau.[5][7][8]
Pei left OnePlus in September, 2020 for a new hardware venture. On January 27, 2021 via Twitter, he announced his new venture called Nothing.
OnePlus
Pei co-founded OnePlus with Pete Lau in Shenzhen, Guangdong in December 2013.[9] Their first OnePlus device, the OnePlus One, sold close to a million units in 2014, despite a sales target of only 50,000, according to Pei.[10]
In July 2015, Pei presented the OnePlus 2 through a virtual reality video on YouTube. It was claimed to be the first product launch in virtual reality, and the video has been viewed over 296,000 times as of October 2020.[11]
After the unveiling of the OnePlus 3 in June 2016 Pei claimed it was the company's most popular smartphone, based on the Net Promoter Score tracked by OnePlus.[12]
When asked about the reasoning about releasing the OnePlus 3T only a few months later in November 2016, Pei said the reason for the upgrade from the OnePlus 3 to the OnePlus 3T was because they did not want to wait to improve the hardware.[13]
Pei claimed the OnePlus 5 to be the fastest-selling OnePlus device to date shortly after its release in June 2017.[14]
Publicity
In July 2015, during an interview by The Wall Street Journal about how OnePlus was created, Pei stated, "One of the reasons why we started this company was we looked at all the Android phones on the market and there wasn't one phone that was good enough for us ourselves to use."[15]
In 2014 and 2015, Pei told The New York Times and Forbes about the growth and globalization of OnePlus, "OnePlus wasn’t meant to become a global company at the beginning. The main focus was taking on the Chinese market. When we started the company, we built a management team with a lot of experience in the Chinese market. But for the global markets team, we are a bunch of young people without a lot of experience. It was just like an experiment, 'Hey, do the global markets and see what happens. Do whatever you want.' We call our group 'a Shenzhen within our company', or a start-up within a bigger company."[7] and "Very soon our sales outside of China will surpass sales in China."[16]
Awards
In April 2016, Pei was included in the 2016 edition of the Marketing Week Vision 100 list for his marketing achievements.[17]
In January 2016, Pei was included in the 2016 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his influence in the technology industry.[18]
In 2019, Pei was included in the 2019 edition of the Fortune Fortune 40 Under 40 list for his accomplishments in the technology industry.[19]
References
- Tam, Eva; Messmer, Lukas. "OnePlus Dials Into a Crowded Smartphone Market". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- "Svenskens mobilfenomen tar strid mot Apple – nu flyttar han till USA". Di Digital (in Swedish). December 9, 2018. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
- "Carl Pei is leaving OnePlus to start a 'new venture'". October 13, 2020. Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
- Orin, Andy (4 March 2015). "I'm Carl Pei, Co-Founder of OnePlus, and This Is How I Work". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
- "LinkedIn profile Carl Pei". LinkedIn. October 15, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
- ""Never settle," said Carl Pei and founded OnePlus". Slush. October 2, 2017. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
- "After Making It Big Globally, OnePlus Turns Its Gaze To China". Forbes. June 24, 2015. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei wants to be an intern at Samsung". SamMobile. October 1, 2015. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Why Carl Pei left Oppo?". OPPO Community. December 19, 2013. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
- "OnePlus sells nearly 1 million OnePlus One units in 2014". Digital Trends. January 10, 2015. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "OnePlus 2: World's First Product Launch in VR". YouTube. April 4, 2020. Archived from the original on November 25, 2017. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
- "Interview with Carl Pei from OnePlus pt1". XDA. October 21, 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Carl Pei: Smartphone's big disruptor talks OnePlus 3T, Daydream VR and focus". Pocket-lint. November 21, 2016. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "OnePlus 5 Is the 'Fastest Selling' OnePlus Device Ever, Says Carl Pei". NDTV. June 21, 2017. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Low Price, High Hopes for OnePlus Phone". YouTube. July 23, 2015. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Low Price, High Hopes for OnePlus Phone". NYT. October 8, 2014. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Marketing Week Carl Pei". Marketing Week. April 1, 2016. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Carl Pei 30 Under 30". Forbes. January 1, 2016. Archived from the original on October 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
- "Carl Pei 40 Under 40". Fortune. January 1, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2021.