Founded in May 2018 by Sky Li (
李炳忠), a former OPPO VP, realme spun out as a separate brand aimed at price-sensitive youth markets. It posts some of the fastest growth in the smartphone industry, breaking into the Indian, Southeast Asian, and Latin American top-five shipments. Always written in all-lowercase 'realme' per brand guidelines; the Chinese name
真我 ('real self') was adopted domestically in 2020.
