Former Senior VP of Meitu Mobile Reportedly Joins NIO’s Smartphone Team
Several independent sources have indicated that Yi Wei, the former senior vice president of Meitu Mobile, which operates a smartphone business under Chinese photo and video editor Meitu, has joined NIO‘s smartphone team as the head of its software department, according to a report by domestic media outlet Auto-time on August 10.
Yi Wei brings more than 10 years of experience in the mobile phone industry. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Meitu Mobile and General Manager of the OPPO Emerging Mobile Terminal Business. In February this year, 36Kr reported that Yin Shuijun, the former president Meitu smartphone, had joined NIO to take charge of its smartphone business.
“NIO‘s smartphone team has more than 300 people, and the employees came from famous companies including OPPO, Meitu and Huawei,” a source familiar with the matter disclosed. According to NIO‘s recruitment website, the company has released a large number of jobs closely related to smartphones, including camera app development engineers, Android engineers, and smartwatch product managers.
According to the source, the salary given to the smartphone team staff by NIO is “mostly increased by 10%-20% on the base of the employee’s salary at their last company.” Regarding this, NIO responded that it would not comment on personnel information.
At the end of July, William Li, the founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, revealed that the company’s smartphone-building business is advancing. Learning from Apple, it plans to release a smartphone every year.
SEE ALSO: NIO Establishes Mobile Technology Subsidiary
On August 4, NIO Mobile Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established with a registered capital of $100 million, and its legal representative is Qin Lihong, the co-founder of NIO. In addition to mobile device sales, the company’s business scope also includes sales of communication equipment, artificial intelligence hardware, and smart vehicle equipment. This seems to imply that NIO will manufacture mobile smartphone-related accessories and products while manufacturing smartphones, thus forming a more complete ecology.
In addition, GSM Arena reported on August 9 that NIO‘s first high-end flagship model will be equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Series processor. The report suggested that NIO has chosen Qualcomm because it is recognized by the industry in the high-end market. On the other hand, the decision could be because Qualcomm chips are already used in NIO‘s products, so it is more convenient to test and adjust Qualcomm chips on smartphones for the company.
