Nine years ago, eight people came together in Beijing with one purpose: To create something cool! And it took them just a bowl of millet porridge to know what they wanted to call the company. Thus, Xiaomi was created.

Little did they know they were creating one of the biggest smartphone companies in the world.

Today, Xiaomi is not just a smartphone maker. It’s a way of living. Its products can replace nearly all of your essential electronics at home, ranging from tiny smart bulbs to heavy duty washing machines and water purifiers. The Xiaomi fever is spreading ever quickly and they seem unstoppable right now. Despite its solid footing in the smartphone industry, Xiaomi had its fair share of struggles and downfalls. And the company has shown us that it’s here to stay by surviving all those tough times. In fact, the company’s turnaround story is so good that people often refer to it as the ‘Chinese Pheonix’!

From making smartphones that borrowed its design from competitors to leading the industry in multiple facets, Xiaomi has carved out a niche of its own in this highly competitive market. To be honest, the smartphone industry wouldn’t have been the same without Xiaomi.

So, it’s only fitting to see some of the biggest milestones by the company on its ninth birthday. So, hop on to this Xiaomi story where you’ll get some interesting facts and figures of the company.

How It All Began!

Xiaomi is headquartered in Beijing, China and started its journey with eight co-founders and fourteen employees on April 6, 2010.

Xiaomi’s logo is abbreviated as Mi and stands for ‘Mobile Internet’. Mi has other meanings as well, which include ‘Mission Impossible’ which represents the various challenges the company had to overcome in its initial years.

The Chinese word for Xiaomi is ‘小米’ which means ‘Millet’. When one of the co-founder’s father cooked millet porridge for the entire team, the company decided to go with this name since it represents affordability and nutrition.

Fun Fact: Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun adds “When I went to the trademark registration, someone asked me whether we are an innovative agricultural technology company,”.

Lei Jun and Lin Bin, the two founders of Xiaomi were already good friends before starting off their new idea. Lin Bin met Lei Jun around early 2009 when Google decided to partner with UC Browser. Back then, Lin Bin was at Google heading the company’s mobile products and business developments in China. Lei Jun was the Chairman of UC Web, and it was only natural that they became good friends.

Xiaomi Founders

Xiaomi started its operations with eight co-founders. They were all in their 30s or 40s, which was above the average age for startup co-founders in China at that time. Nevertheless, they brought in years of rich experience to the company.

• Lei Jun (ex-Kingsoft) [Nick: Lei Zong] — Currently the CEO of Xiaomi
• Lin bin (ex-Googler) [Nick: Bin Zong] — Currently the President of Xiaomi, heads Mobile department
• Li Wanqiang (ex-Kingsoft) [Nick: Alee] — Heads Xiaomi’s e-commerce teams
• Kong-Kat Wong (ex-Microsoft) [Nick: KK] — Leads Mi Wi-Fi and Mi Cloud teams
• Wang Chuan [Nick: Chuan Sir] — Currently President of Xiaomi China, headed Xiaomi’s Smart TV business
• Hong Feng (ex-Googler) — Heads Xiaomi’s MIUI division
• Guangping Zhou (ex-Motorola) — Heads Xiaomi’s Hardware and BSP teams
• Liu De [Nick: Brother De] — Heads Xiaomi’s Industrial Design and Ecosystem Development Teams

Xiaomi Employees

Xiaomi started off with just 14 employees.

Right now, the company has over 18,000 employees spread throughout China, India, and other countries.

While Lei Jun and Lin Bin retain over 40% of shares in Xiaomi, there are 7000+ employees in the company with its shares or options. This was because Xiaomi’s executives offered share options to its employees right from the start. In fact, at the time of Xiaomi’s IPO, it was said that around 56 early employees of the company were all set to become millionaires.

When word spread back in 2010 that Lei Jun and his co-founders were racking up their own money for a venture financing round, there were employees like Li Weixing and others who wanted to join them. Lei Jun had hinted in an interview conducted in March that they had to let everyone in since they can’t let only Weixing invest. The investments from the rank-and-file were capped at about 300,000 yuan each to limit risk and stop employees from taking out loans to invest. The employee who even took out her dowry of around 100,000 to 200,000 yuan ($16,000 to $31,000) was simply identified as employee No. 14, a receptionist now working in Xiaomi’s human resources office.

Today, many of them are millionaires.

Xiaomi’s Smartphone Journey: A Solid Start

2010

• The first version of the company’s Android UI called MIUI was announced in China

2011

• Xiaomi’s first smartphone, Mi 1 announced on August 16. The phone was the first phone with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and went on sale in October in an online-only sales model. The price tag was just 1999 Yuan ($300).

2012

• Xiaomi announces the Mi 2 featuring Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064. The phone is quite popular in China.
• This helps Xiaomi sell over 7.19 million smartphones in the year.

2013

• Xiaomi announces the Xiaomi Mi 3 in two versions, one with SD800 and another one with NVIDIA’s Tegra 4. This phone becomes the company’s flagship model in the international markets next year.
• In the same year, Xiaomi announces its first phone under a new lineup, Redmi, focused on the budget segment. The first model in the lineup is the Redmi 1. It was announced in July 2013 and came with MediaTek’s MT6589T processor and 1GB of RAM. It’s a hit among budget users.
• The surge in Xiaomi fanbase helps the company sell over 18.3 million smartphones in the year, which was more than 50% YoY growth.

2014

• This was the year when Xiaomi decided to let loose and reach out to other markets outside of China.
• The first international stop was Singapore, followed by countries like Malaysia and the Philippines.
• The same year, Xiaomi started its operations in India with the Xiaomi Mi 3 flagship.
• In light of its international expansion, the company decided to give its online operations a global reach by purchasing the Mi.com domain for a staggering $3.6 million. This was the most expensive domain purchase in China in its time.
• In the same year, the Redmi 1 model got a larger sibling, called the Redmi Note.
• In terms of smartphone shipments, Xiaomi came into the big league, shipping over 61.12 million units in 2014.

Xiaomi’s Smartphone Journey: Trying Times

2015

• Xiaomi’s international expansion continued and it entered new markets like Brazil.
• The company decides to prioritize its operations in India. In this regard, Xiaomi announced Xiaomi Mi 4i, its first smartphone tailored for the Indian market. The phone first launched in India before any other country including China.
• The company continues its aggressive online-only model. However, it fails to achieve its 100M smartphone target and accepts that it grew too quickly. Xiaomi didn’t reveal an exact sales figure at that time, but it was said to be only around 70 million units, falling way short of its initial target for the year.

2016

• The struggle continues, with Xiaomi ceasing its operations in Brazil.
• However, there were a bunch of new announcements like the Xiaomi Mi Max series and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 model. The latter would turn out to be one of the best selling smartphones in India.
• Xiaomi targets the EU market bagging its first official distributor, ABC Data.
• In November that year, Xiaomi announced a smartphone that changed the way we perceive the brand. The Mi Mix series was announced with a revolutionary tri-bezel-less design and a very high screen to body ratio. The company managed to beat the big players to release something unique and beautiful in the industry. In some sense, we can say that the Mi Mix series paved the design for the smartphones that we see today!
• But overall, 2016 was a bad year for Xiaomi. Company’s online-only sales model was no longer effective and competitors like OPPO and Vivo, driven by its solid offline sales strategy, was eating up Xiaomi’s sales. By the end of the year, Xiaomi could only sell around 53 million units. A huge decline over last year and definitely falling short of the company’s big goals.

Xiaomi’s Smartphone Journey: China’s Pheonix!

2017

• This year defined Xiaomi. After two years of declining sales, some people started to write off Xiaomi as any other startup that shows promise but fails to deliver in the long run.
• However, the company turned things around drastically! And the way they did it forced people to take notice. By the end of 2017, Xiaomi has shipped over 92 million smartphones, which was an unprecedented growth figure in the industry!
• Xiaomi first revamped its offline policy. CEO Lei Jun announced the company’s newfound love for retail and vowed to open 200 Mi stores in China by the end of the year.
• Despite struggling in its home country, Xiaomi was exceptionally successful in India in the previous two years. It managed to overtake Samsung to become the number one smartphone company in India in 2017.
• It opened its first Mi Store in Bengaluru, India in the same year. At the same time, Xiaomi renews its focus in India with a target of opening 100 Mi Stores throughout the country in the next two years.
• In the same year, Xiaomi offers something unique to its Mi fans. The first Android One smartphone, the Mi A1 is announced. It runs on stock Android instead of the company’s MIUI platform.

2018

• Xiaomi strengthens its hold in Europe with Three partnership. This opens up its entry into the UK.
• The company also announces the Mi Mix 2S flagship. This is the first ever Xiaomi smartphone to have a really good camera, changing the perception that the company couldn’t excel in the camera department. With a DxOMark score of 97, Xiaomi had finally entered the big leagues of flagship camera performers.
• Xiaomi announces it will forever limit its net profit margin after tax for the entire hardware business to 5%.
• In the same year, Xiaomi gets listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange at HK$17, thereby raising $4.2 billion. With that pricing, the company is valued at $54 billion.
• Xiaomi’s turnaround strategy further fuels its growth in 2018. It shipped over 100 million smartphones by November 2018. By the end of the year, the total shipments figure reach 122 million!

2019

• In January 2019, Xiaomi decides to split its popular Redmi brand from the flagship Mi brand. Also, Redmi gets a new head, Lu Weibing, who was the former President of Gionee.
• The company also decides to offer 18 months of warranty for its newly launched Redmi Note 7 series smartphones. It further announces its intention to set the 18 months warranty trend in the industry.
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G also makes its debut at MWC 2019, joining the likes of Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and other big players with this new generation wireless standard.
• Xiaomi proves it means business in the smartphone industry by upgrading the camera on its Mi 9 flagship. The phone bags a DxOMark score of 107, making it one of the top 5 smartphone cameras in the industry.

Xiaomi’s 9 Year Journey In Figures

• Xiaomi has over 242.1 million MIUI users
• Xiaomi has over 151 million IoT devices with over 2.3 million users with more than 5 Xiaomi branded IoT devices.
• Xiaomi is the No.1 Smart TV Brand in Mainland China.
• The company sells its products in over 70 countries. It one of the top 5 smartphone makers in 16 markets.
• There will be over 2000 Mi Home stores worldwide by 2019.
• The company has applied for over 24,000 patents worldwide. Out of them, 5920 patents have been granted yet.

As compared to some of the big players out there, Xiaomi’s journey is quite short. However, what the company has managed to do in these short 9 years says a lot about the way it works.

For example, Xiaomi exceeded its revenue goal of RMB 100 billion in just over 7 years! For the same target, Apple took 20 years, Facebook 12 years, Google nine years, Alibaba 17 years, Tencent 17 years, and Huawei 21 years!

After its Hong Kong IPO, the company is going strong with its strategy of product diversification. Hence, it isn’t really surprising to see that the company released over 44 non-smartphone products since January 2019!

So, on its 9th birthday, we wish Xiaomi all the success in the coming years. We hope it continues to offer great products and features at an affordable price tag, leading the way for all other companies out there!

The post Xiaomi is 9 Years Old: We Document Its Journey & Major Milestones! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi was officially founded on April 6, 2010. This means that the Chinese giant turned 9 today, and during this time, Xiaomi has become one of the best smartphones manufacturers in the world. Considering how the company started from scratch, this is indeed a tremendous achievement.

Currently, the company is in the top 4 smartphones manufacturers in the world and it is registering a huge and constant growth year-over-year. In just a few years, Xiaomi passed from being a Chinese-based company to a global giant, and now it ships millions of devices per month.

Here, you can find our selection of the best and most innovative Xiaomi phones released in the last two years.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G deserves the first spot in this selection as it is the world’s first 5G-enabled smartphone ever announced. It is not the first one which hit the market as Samsung Galaxy S10 5G debuted in South Korea on April 5, but it will be available in the global market starting from next month. The handset is powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset which is paired with a Snapdragon X50 5G modem. It is a single-mode modem (it needs an additional modem to support 4G, 3G, and 2G networks, that is the Snapdragon X24 in this case) which can reach peak download speeds up to 5 Gbps with the mmWave technology.

Xiaomi Mi 9

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is the first Xiaomi phone to support fast wireless charging with a power of 20W. So, besides being able to fully charge with blazing speeds through Quick Charge 4+ and a USB-C cable, it even charges in a very quick way wirelessly. The Mi 9 is also one of the most affordable devices to come with the best Qualcomm’s chipset: the Snapdragon 855. It is not a 5G phone unlike the Mi Mix 3 5G, but it costs just €450 in the global market. Despite its incredibly affordable price, it has one of the best camera departments out there: a triple setup with a 48 MP main sensor, a 16 MP ultrawide lens and a 12 MP telephoto lens. It was ranked in the top 5 inside DxOMark’s camera phones chart.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S deserves a mention for being the first Xiaomi flagship phone to really feature a flagship-grade camera. Until its release, lots of people were complaining about the scarce camera potentialities of the company’s flagships and every expert who wanted to shoot great photos with an Android handset opted for other manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei. But with the Mi Mix 2S things totally changed. Finally, it was possible to get a flagship-killer with an affordable price without sacrificing on amazing photos. And through the updates over time, the phone has got even better! In case you forgot, the Mi Mix 2S is equipped with a 12 MP dual camera with OIS and 2x optical zoom.

Xiaomi Black Shark

With Black Shark, Xiaomi officially debuted in the gaming phones sector. The Black Shark, made in cooperation with a third-party company supported by Xiaomi, was essentially the affordable alternative to the Razer Phone, alias the world’s first gaming smartphone. Despite being an affordable device, it came with a flagship-class Snapdragon 845 SoC and amazing performance, as well as a very advanced cooling system. It even supports a dedicated external controller. And the listing price is just €400 ($450).

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7

A few months ago, Xiaomi decided to split its core smartphone business and its whole Redmi line-up by transforming Redmi in a sub-brand, just like Huawei did with Honor (and Oppo with Realme). Redmi Note 7 was the first smartphone released after Redmi became independent from the main company. And the Redmi Note 7 hit the shelves with one of the most interesting price tags of 2019. Just €179 (globally) for the base version for a phone that is powered by a Snapdragon 660 chipset and sports a 48 MP dual camera, as well as a huge 4000 mAh battery! Do you know any device with a better value for money at the same price? Let us know in the comment box below.

Xiaomi Mi A1

With the Mi A1, Xiaomi embraced the Android One program for the first time. This device belongs to the only Xiaomi midrange line-up containing smartphones without MIUI installed. It comes with Android One out of the box: a stock Android version supported directly by Google with constant and fast updates. Thanks to this device, customers were able to break free from all MIUI’s customizations, bloatware, and preinstalled apps. The phone was also released in a version with MIUI for the Chinese market: the Mi 5X. But the Mi A1 turned out to be one of the company’s best-sellers in that year.

• Read More: Mi’s next Android One phones (possibly Mi A3 and Mi A3 Lite) will have in-display fingerprint scanners

Xiaomi Redmi Go

While Xiaomi Mi A1 is the first company’s phone with Android One, the Redmi Go is the first with Android Go. In case you don’t know, it is an enlightened version of Google’s operating system with toned down apps which takes less storage and fewer system resources, so it is able to run smoothly even on devices with low-end or outdated hardware (it can be used with only 512 MB of RAM!). So, the Redmi Go allows people to get a smooth and performing device while spending less than 100 bucks. And it still comes with an HD display and a long-lasting battery.

• RELATED: Xiaomi lets the media in on the rigorous tests the Mi 9 undergoes with a tour of Foxconn’s production factory

As you can see, Xiaomi devices evolved a lot in the last years, a lot of new line-ups were born and we saw a lot of best-sellers.

We can’t imagine the smartphone industry would have been the same without Xiaomi and its smartphones. Thank you Xiaomi! And Happy Birthday!

Which is your most favorite Xiaomi phone ever? Let us know in the comments box below.

The post Xiaomi turns 9 today: We Pick the company’s recent Game Changers! appeared first on Gizmochina.