Xiaomi, the popular smartphone brand, is now entering the online mutual aid industry in China. The relatively new industry has been growing fast in the region and the Chinese tech giant has launched a new crowdfunding health care platform within the market, which will rival other major tech brands as well.

The new platform is called Xiaomi Huzhu and is now open for preregistration in Mainland China. This new endeavor is headed by Xiaomi Finance, the company’s financial technology branch, and will offer the new platform through its app and the company’s official WeChat account, starting next Monday (15th June 2020). To explain the service in a simple term, members share the cost of a claim only when it has been verified. So for a 1000 Yuan claim, 1 Yuan will be shared by 1000 people.

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Within the new service, customers can opt to join in with no upfront fee and claim up to 500,000 Yuan (roughly 70,000 US Dollars) for critical illnesses. The list of the illnesses includes 82 major diseases and 10 serious ailments specific to children. Members of the platform are also eligible to receive 24/7 medical checkup and consultation in real-time online.

At the moment, it is unknown as to how much revenue Xiaomi is pouring into the platform. Currently, its internet based services have generation 2.5 billion Yuan (roughly 353 million US Dollars) in the first quarter of 2020 (growing by 5.1 percent) and mainly consists of financial technology and gaming. Thus, it is unknown how the new service will contribute to the company’s overall internet services segment, although, the company is expected to reach a massive userbase of 450 million users by 2025.

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Zhao Weixing, the President of XW Bank, has been named as the Vice President of Xiaomi Corp’s financial service, Xiaomi Finance. The senior official is a veteran in the banking industry and will help the Chinese tech giant expand its interests in the financial services business.

The announcement arrived from a statement made by the company to a Chinese reporting, Caixin. Zhao was appointed as the Vice President after he completed his three year tenure with XW Bank, a lender backed by Xiaomi. Despite his shift, the official will still be supporting the bank from his new position as well.

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For those unaware, the Sichuan based XW Bank is China’s third internet only bank. In other words, it is completely based online. Zhao has been integral in the company’s growth in inclusive finances and partnerships with other financial institutions. Under his run, the bank had a total asset evaluation coming around 44 billion Yuan, which roughly translates to about 6 billion US Dollars.

Notably, Zhao Weixing has previously worked with other banks in the region like Minsheng Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and Bank of Hangzhou as well. Now, only time will tell what new policies or restructuring the Xiaomi Finances will see under his reign.

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It also reported that its total revenue climbed 27.2 percent to 43.8 billion yuan (approximately $6.33 billion). The biggest source of revenue for the company continues to be the smartphone business.

Xiaomi is currently dominating the smartphone market in India and is also doing well in a few other countries outside of its home market China. International markets generated over 38 percent of its total revenue over the first quarter, representing a 35 percent increase. Xiaomi’s overseas momentum came amid a global slowdown in the sector.

As per the report from Canalys, Xiaomi was the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker by units shipped in the first quarter. Further, the company’s “IoT and lifestyle” unit, which has a wide range of home appliances saw its share of revenue jump from 22.4 percent to 27.5 percent year-over-year.

The company says that the growth of this segment was primarily driven by smart TV sales, a new area of focus for the company. In January, Xiaomi had announced taking a 0.48% stake in TV manufacturer TCL. This deepens an existing alliance under which Xiaomi’s operating system was integrated into TCL products.

Till March-end, the company reported that it owned 261 million monthly active users through its MIUI operating system installed across all devices, which represent a 37.3 percent growth YoY. The number of IoT devices, excluding smartphones and laptops, have jumped 70 percent to reach approximately 171.0 million units.

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Xiaomi is working very hard to grow its software and internet services segment but the strategy so far hasn’t been much effective as it accounted for 9.7 percent of the company’s total revenue, compared to 9.1 percent a year before. The company has said that it won’t make more than 5 percent profit from the hardware business, so it makes sense for Xiaomi to focus more on software and internet services.

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Recently, there was a rumor going around on the internet regarding an equity investment opportunity in the Chinese company, Xiaomi. Naturally, this rumor spread like fire.

According to Chinese media, the document leaked about the investment opportunity from CITIC Capital Projects revealed that Xiaomi was looking to raise about $110 million USD in equity investments for subscription of 0.45% stake in the company. This would have valued the company around $24.4 billion, much, much lower than the earlier valuation of $45 billion.

Considering the spread of this news, Xiaomi made an official statement saying that the company had no plans for an IPO. In fact, the company stressed that it has over 10 billion Yuan in cash at the moment, which comes to nearly $1.54 billion USD. Xiaomi further added that it is under no financial pressure and has no plans for new financing or IPO offerings. So, the rumors about the document from CITIC Capital are not true.

Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun also stressed at an event that the company was not looking for financing rounds as it is carrying over (10 billion Yuan) $1.54 billion USD in cash.

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