After attaining the No. 1 status in China, Xiaomi will look to emulate similar success in India, after identifying the growing market as a major market for the company.
Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun has said that the company is aiming to be one of the top three smartphone brands in India, in the next three years. In an exclusive interview to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), he also mentioned that Xiaomi has intentions of becoming the number one brand in India within the same time period.
Jun told WSJ, “We give ourselves three years to be the top three or even No.1 smartphone brand in India. Our business model isn’t about how many phones we sell. We can’t monetize unless we become a highly influential player in a country or a region. For example, we’re doing business in Taiwan and Hong Kong, but their population sizes are too small and it’s very hard to operate online businesses. The core of an online operation is population size. Therefore we want to sell to 10% to 20% of the population in India and other big countries.”
Xiaomi is a five-year-old company. And, as per IDC, it is already the largest smartphone vendor in China, and is ranked third in the world. The company entered the Indian market last year with the launch of the Mi 3, Redmi Note and Redmi 1S. Since then, it has seen a decent response to its products from Indian users, and has been trying other ways to expand its Indian user base. Earlier, its products were Flipkart-exclusive. Since 2014, the company expanded its online sales model to Amazon and Snapdeal, along with its own website, Mi.com. Recently, it was also reported that the company has partnered with Redington to sell its products via offline stores in more than 15 cities. Xiaomi is expected to start its offline sales with Redmi 2, Mi 4i, Mi Pad, and Mi 4 smartphones.
Xiaomi has also expressed support in favour of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, committing to make phones from Foxconn’s manufacturing plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. It has already launched the first India-made smartphone, the Redmi 2 Prime, as a part of the commitment. The phone sports a 4.7-inch HD display, and is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset, coupled with 2GB of RAM. The phone offers 16GB of internal storage, and has an 8MP rear shooter, along with a 2MP front shooter. It has a 2200mAh battery, and is priced at Rs. 6,999.
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