Chinese smartphone brand Oppo is making a renewed push into the European market through a partnership with telecommunications giant Vodafone at a time when its bigger rival Huawei Technologies has seen slumping sales in the Europe amid a US trade ban and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. oppo europe

Vodafone will distribute Oppo products across its retail channels in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands effective May this year, Oppo said in a statement on Monday.

The cooperation with Vodafone signals Oppo’s global ambitions with a strategy to promote the brand in mature overseas markets at a time when Huawei is facing headwinds selling internationally after being put on a US trade blacklist that prohibits it from using Google mobile services. Huawei’s development could be impeded after the US Department of Commerce announced last Friday it would further restrict the ability of Huawei to develop semiconductors using American technologies.

Oppo now accounts for 2 percent of the European market after experiencing 10-fold growth in the first quarter amid countrywide lockdowns imposed to limit the spread of the pandemic, according to the research firm Canalys. The growth spurt saw Oppo jump to the fifth spot in the region, behind fourth-place Xiaomi with 14 percent and second-place Huawei with 21 percent market.