Established Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp chairman and CEO Lei Jun has said that the company sees the huge potential of conversion of feature phone users in India, mainly at the rural areas, to smartphones which would boost the growth of the company in the country over the next five years.
Addressing analysts during the company’s July-September quarter earnings presentation on Tuesday, Jun said the Indian smartphone market is estimated at about 300 million units per year with about half of these being feature phones. He stressed that the company will continue on the path of innovation in carving a niche for the Indian market by producing affordable and high-performance smartphones.
Jun said Xiaomi will expand their sales network down to the countryside and villages so that consumers in these areas are equipped with mobile internet which would almost certainly bring change to their lives for the better. “This is our plan. So overall, I think…we’re very, very optimistic about the future growth for the next maybe five years,” he said.
Xiaomi chalked up a 55% growth in revenue in the third quarter this year as compared to its performance last year.
Jun said Xiaomi will aim to sustain its leading position in the smartphone segment of the Indian market which has been for more than 4 years. He said the Indian market is now equally divided between online and offline channels with each contributing an equal proportion of the sales. He thus stated that Xiaomi wants to be successful in India hence would continue its drive for hitting a previously untapped customer base.
“Right now, we have established a system to cover the major markets, including Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and Southeast Asian countries, and India,” Jun stated.
The Xiaomi chief executive said the company is seeing a global rebound in sales in Q3 in the aftermath of the adverse impact on businesses in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. He also noted that the company experienced tough challenges in supplies due to supplier shortage.
“So we are closely monitoring the status of the pandemic in Europe, in India,” he said. The company is optimistic of a more productive 2021, with the possible rollout of vaccines for Covid-19.
Xiaomi has 20,881 full-time employees of which 19,319 (about 93%) are based in mainland China mainly in its Beijing headquarters, with India and Indonesia accounting for the rest employees (about 7%). (source)
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