Meizu was 'small and beautiful' — then it released 10 phones in a year and lost both

Huang Zhang founded Meizu in Zhuhai in 2003. The brand built its identity on 'small and beautiful' (小而美) — carefully designed phones for a discerning niche. In 2015, Meizu sold 20 million phones, up 350 percent year on year, with revenue of 16.8 billion yuan. The growth looked like a breakout. The accounts told a different story: the company lost 1.037 billion yuan that year.

In 2016, Meizu chased volume. It released 10 phone models in a single year — the 'machine-sea' tactic (机海战术) — abandoning the careful, one-flagship-at-a-time approach that had defined the brand. Shipments peaked at 22 million units. But the audited figures showed liabilities of 8.9 billion yuan against assets of 7.2 billion: a 123 percent debt ratio. Qualcomm sued for 520 million yuan in unpaid patent royalties.

The volume chase destroyed the brand without creating a profitable business. The 'small and beautiful' customer left because the products were no longer curated; the volume customer left because Meizu had neither the distribution of OPPO and Vivo nor the ecosystem of Xiaomi. In 2018, Meizu confirmed 610 layoffs. Its certified store count fell from over 2,300 in early 2017 to 68 by the third quarter of 2021.

In June 2022, Geely — the car manufacturer — acquired 79 percent of Meizu through its subsidiary Hubei Xingji Shidai. Huang Zhang exited. In February 2026, Meizu officially paused its self-developed phone hardware projects. The brand that had been China's most distinctive phone maker survived only as a software team building in-car systems for Geely.