Global smartphone brand realme has been announced as the fastest-growing major brand in the world in 2020.

Research company Counterpoint said this in its latest smartphone report on Q4, as realme grew 65% year-on-year and shipped 42 million smartphones last year.

Realme has been employing innovative methods in both the consumer and product segments to aggressively grow its market share.

In an economic environment where nearly all major industry leaders were facing a loss, realme was one of the only two major smartphone brands to register growth throughout 2020.

The company started the year selling only to 35 markets and ended it with approximately 100% growth, totalling 61 active markets by the end of 2020.

During this time, realme expanded its user base by 250%, from 25 million to over 50 million.

“At realme, we live our philosophy, which is to dare to leap into the forefront of innovation, design and product value, which is something young people can identify with,” said realme CEO Sky Li.

Realme surpassed the 50 million sales milestone in merely nine quarters since its inception, making it the fastest-growing smartphone brand in the world.

The brand’s users and employees frequently trade tips about the latest technological trends, sell online through a heavy emphasis on e-commerce.

“This has created authenticity from the top to the bottom, and this brand value is seen by the consumer first-hand,” said Li.

“Our changing environment has allowed realme to live out its values in plain view of its consumers. Once countries start to limit movement, we upgraded our after-sales services such as warranty extensions, live online support and shorter waiting and delivery times to maintain the high quality of service to our users that we have become known for.”

Realme has consistently led the market in decentralising and exposing 5G-enable equipment to many groups through leap-forward performed products of great value, such as the global launch of the realme 7 5G, which costs less than $300.

Well-known gadget media GSM Arena has rated realme as the number one mid-range all-rounder mobile phone for 2020.