Xiaomi Corp (小米) expects revenue this year to rise more than 50 percent as China’s biggest smartphone vendor diversifies its product lineup and expands to more overseas markets.
The projection for more than 100 billion yuan (US$16 billion) in sales compares with last year’s total of 74.3 billion yuan, founder and CEO Lei Jun (雷軍) told reporters at the Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing yesterday.
The company’s revenue more than doubled last year.
Photo: Bloomberg
Xiaomi’s valuation has surged to US$45 billion just four years after releasing its first smartphone, with the company tapping the surging domestic demand for inexpensive devices packed with high-end features.
The closely held company has taken stakes in more than 20 startups in the past two years, adding products including air purifiers and light bulbs that can be controlled by smartphones.
“There’s no doubt they will surpass 100 billion yuan this year, and sales growth will be more than 50 percent,” Lei said.
Mobile Internet and other Internet businesses “maintain strong growth” amid weakening conditions in the Chinese economy, he said.
China set the lowest economic growth target in more than 15 years as leaders tackle the side effects of a generation-long expansion that has spurred corruption, fueled debt risks, and polluted skies and rivers.
The goal of about 7 percent, down from last year’s aspiration of about 7.5 percent, was given in a work report that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) was to deliver to the annual meeting of the legislature yesterday.
Lei reiterated his goal of becoming the world’s largest smartphone vendor within a decade.
The company sees sales volume and market share as important in generating economies of scale.
Xiaomi captured 12.5 percent of the 421 million smartphones shipped in China last year, up from a 5.3 percent share the previous year, IDC said in a statement on Feb. 17.
Last month, Xiaomi said it would open a US Web site selling health bands, chargers and headphones, though there are no plans yet to offer its smartphones or tablet computers.
The company said in November last year that it plans to sell smartphones in Thailand, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey this year.
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