Tag: Xiaomi smartphones

The tech company from China is seeking new investments and partnerships within India’s market.

The Xiaomi mobile tech company recently entered a partnership with the Mobikwik mobile wallet. It gave them access to 1 million device users in India who were using the free SMS-based mobile payment service. It is now becoming clear that this is only one of the first steps Xiaomi is taking into the Indian marketplace.

The technology company is now looking to invest in startups while also forming local partnerships.

The goal is to build a strong ecosystem surrounding Xiaomi mobile products in India. The Chinese tech company currently sells a range of different products in India, including smartphones, tablets, Bluetooth accessories, fitness bands and power banks. That said, the television launch may require additional time. The reason, says the company’s head in India, Manu Jain, is that Xiaomi has not yet completed its content strategy.

Still, the Xiaomi mobile investments in India have been growing rapidly, particularly among startups.

Back in April, the firm invested in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. That was an important move toward establishing an Indian foundation, said Jain. Xiaomi was a leader in the $25 million round of investments into that business. It represented the first time Xiaomi invested in any startups within the Indian market.

As a result of this investment, Xiaomi device users will have free access to 2 Hungama premium apps for three months and for one year. Those apps are Hungama Play and Hungama Music, respectively.

More recently the company linked up with One Mobikwik Systems Pvt. Ltd., a mobile wallet business. Through that partnership, one million of the company’s device users will have access to that mobile payments system for free.

If the situation in the company’s home country is any indication, there could be a great deal more to come. In China, it has already incubated or invested in 55 content and hardware startup businesses. Among them have been those that have developed a broad range of offerings. These include everything from air and water purifiers to drones. They also include complementary software and content development.

Of the 55 companies, 20 have already launched a product. Four have managed to achieve a valuation of $1 billion – also known as unicorn status – following the Xiaomi mobile investment.

The company has experienced massive growth in the country, skyrocketing its size and share.

The founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, has already announced that the massive growth that his company has seen in the Chinese smartphone market has not only pushed it to the top in China, but it has also placed it in the fifth spot among the largest handset makers in the world.

This was accomplished despite the fact that the company was still relatively obscure only one year ago.

Now, Xiaomi has taken the lead in cell phone sales in China. This is a massive accomplishment, considering that the country represents the largest smartphone market on the entire globe. A technology research report that was recently published by Canalys underscored the tremendous growth that the company has been making. It has managed to jet right past other giants within the space, such as Lenovo and even Samsung, in order to take its crown in the country.

Due to the sheer size of the Chinese smartphone market, it has secured Xiaomi as the fifth largest cell phone maker in the world.

The Canalys report went on to say that throughout the second quarter of 2014, Xiaomi managed to ship a tremendous 15 million smartphones within China. During the same quarter of 2013, that figure had been only 4.4 million. To compare, the report showed that Samsung sold 13.2 million cell phones within the country during that quarter, which was a decline from the 15.5 million that it had sold during the same period of time last year.

As a whole, there was a 240 percent year over year growth experienced by Xiaomi during the second quarter. It currently holds an estimated 14 percent of the cell phone device market in China.

According to Chris Jones at Canalys, the company managed to make this tremendous progress within this mobile device sector because it took on an entirely different strategy to its competition. The majority of manufacturers in the country’s smartphone market focus on price when it comes to their competition. That said, Xiaomi placed its focus on its marketing, branding and sales strategies.