Lei Jun: Xiaomi Has Become The Third Biggest Smartphone Vendor In India

(Chinese Version)

As the Chinese smartphone market has already been saturated, many Chinese smartphone makers eye on India, with a population only second to China. Up till now, brands including Xiaomi, Lenovo (including Motorola), LeTV, OPPO, VIVO, Huawei, ZTE, GIONEE have all entered the Indian smartphone market and increased their investment to compete for a larger share.

Recently, Lei Jun, Xiaomi s founder and CEO, revealed in an internal letter that new progress had been made in sales performance and market share of Xiaomi in India. He also pointed out Xiaomi would further increase investment and endeavor to become the number one smartphone vendor in India within three to five years.

In the internal letter, Lei revealed that since October, Xiaomi had sold over 1 million smartphones (within eighteen days). Besides, he said that Xiaomi had sold a staggering 2.3 million Redmi Note within six months.

While Xiaomi s sales in the Chinese domestic market has been declining this year, it has made brilliant achievement in India.

Lei revealed that next Xiaomi was going to further increase its investment in India and continued to serve the large crowd of Xiaomi s die-hard fans in India by further strengthening its supply capacity in India as well as improving its products quality and service.

In the internal letter, Lei said frankly that the Indian smartphone market was vital for many smartphones makers worldwide and competition could be extremely fierce. He said that he was glad to see the progress Xiaomi had made in India, but he pointed out that Xiaomi s next goal was to keep its market position in the Indian smartphone market, which was especially difficult in the ever-changing internet era.

Thanks to the large crowd of die-hard Xiaomi fans, Xiaomi used to enjoy a golden time back in China and Mr. Lei himself was also nicknamed as “King of the Xiaomi Empire”. However, after Xiaomi s hungry marketing ended and the craze for Xiaomi die down, other Chinese smartphone makers soon caught up.

The following is Lei Jun s internal letter:

My fellow colleagues,

Up till yesterday, we ve achieved an amazing progress in India: within the past 18 days, we ve sold one million smartphones in India. I d like to, on behalf of Xiaomi s management board and all Xiaomi s employees, begin by extending warm congratulations on the amazing progress of Xiaomi s India team.

Besides, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Hugo and Manu for their excellent leadership, to all members of Xiaomi India team for their outstanding contribution, as well as to Xiaomi China team for their support. I am deeply proud of each and every colleague at Xiaomi. At the same time, I would like to thank all our partners in India, especially Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal.

In addition, I d like to give special thanks to Xiaomi s die-hard fans in India. It is based on your support that Xiaomi manages to make one after another miracle.

We attach high importance to the Indian market, because India is our largest market overseas. For the past two years, we ve already made a series of achievements:

• In August, 2015, we became the first Chinese smartphone maker to join PM Modi's 'Make in India' campaign;
• In July and August, 2016, Xiaomi became the biggest smartphone vendor in Indian e-commerce market, according to IDC.
• In September, 2016, Xiaomi became the third biggest smartphone vendor in India and accounted for 8.4 per cent market share in top thirty Indian cities.
• Up till September, 2016, Xiao sold 2.3 million Redmi Note 3 within six months, and the device became the best-selling smartphone on Indian e-commerce platforms.

Since the Indian smartphone market is vital for many smartphones makers worldwide, competition can be extremely fierce. However, thanks to our high-quality and high-performance-price-ratio product as well as our extraordinary India team, we ve managed to make great progress. Next, we are going to further increase our investment in India and continue to serve the large crowd of Xiaomi s die-hard fans in India. Besides, we will further strengthen our supply capacity in India and provide better products as well as service.

Making high-quality products with real materials, making friends with users and managing with high efficiency…these ideas have always been at the core of Xiaomi s model. Such model proved to work well in China, and will certainly gradually be accepted worldwide. India is our first stop in that endeavor.

I have every confidence to believe that through the endeavor of every member of Xiaomi s big family, we shall become the biggest smartphone vendor in India (in terms of market share) in the next three to five years. Good luck, Xiaomi. Let s join our hands and make the history together.

Thanks.

Lei Jun
Founder and CEO of Xiaomi Technology
October, 19th, 2016

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Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.