Xiaomi appears to be looking beyond just selling its smartphones in India. Back in its home country, Xiaomi has a different and a more all-encompassing business model. The company now plans to expand its business in India also on similar lines, as per a report in Economic Times
The Chinese electronics major is already the second largest seller of mobile phones in India, behind Samsung. It sells its devices in two brands, Mi and Redmi.
This latest development was disclosed by Xiaomi’s India head Manu Jain on the sidelines of the launch event for its latest flagship, Mi Mix 2. He said the company will continue to strive for taking the top position in the handsets business first.
Xiaomi’s internet business covers its MIUI interface, Mi finance and Mi entertainment, which the company uses its smartphone customers to build on. The company has a model to monetize these business streams. Xiaomi claims to have clocked a business of $1billion from selling their handsets and hope to double it the next year. For the new lines of business, Xiaomi will weigh 3 distinct factors; the maturity level of the market; capability of its team to deliver and the life cycle of the company in the particular region.
On the handsets front, Xiaomi is getting all its phones manufactured through Foxconn in India, except its latest top end phone Mi Mix 2, which will continue to be imported from China and sole here. The company executive explained that there are technical reasons why this is so and if the situation develops favorably, Mi Mix 2 may also get made here, in future. Xiaomi believes that with its phone being priced at around Rs 35,000 it will be able to take on other top brands in the top segment, including OnePlus, which has been scoring ahead of Xiaomi, so far, in this segment.