Xiaomi Founder and Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun has addressed a letter to all company employees at their year-end gala. Explaining the company’s success, he also lays out the company’s ambitious plans for expansion, along with what their employees and customers can expect in 2018.
Lei Jun says that the company’s success comes from the business model and values. Rather than going after short-term gains in terms of hardware profit, the company values trust amongst consumers. He notes that the company has entered more than 70 markets globally and is hoping to debut in many new markets worldwide this year.
The company executive also touted their performance in global other markets such as India, Russia, Spain and Indonesia saying, “India is an extraordinary example. According to multiple research firms, starting Q3 last year, our smartphone market share in India has become number one. Also, with Indonesia representing Southeast Asia, Russia representing Eastern Europe, and Spain representing Western Europe, all our markets have shown strong growth.”
Talking about the company’s plans for their home market, Jun says, “On the domestic front, we have to start a full counter-attack and accumulate small successes into a full victory, sparing no effort to ensure that we have the ultimate victory in 2019. So this year I am setting a new goal: We will regain the #1 position in China within 10 quarters.” He further adds, “In 2018, the Chinese smartphone market is poised to experience a decline for the first time after more than a decade of growth. The Chinese market is Xiaomi’s foundation. Only by winning in the domestic market can we have enough support for global expansion.”
The CEO said that the company crossed RMB 100 billion revenue in October 2017, seven years since their inception. He states that the company doubled its global shipments last year and attributes this success to three main reasons namely; technological innovations like the Surge S1, bezel-less Mi Mix 2, focus on quality, and growth in Xioami’s global business with Xiaomi being no.1 in India (IDC’s report).
Xiaomi indeed seems to hold high ambitions for expansion in 2018. The company will soon unveil its first smartphones of 2018 in India on February 14. Its speculated that the company might be launching the Redmi Note 5, the successor of its previous year’s most selling smartphone, the Redmi Note 4. You can read what the upcoming device could offer here.