Leading Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (小米) is aiming for a future as an Internet company with the potential to cross swords with titans such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
Xiaomi co-founder and chief executive Bin Lin (林斌) on Wednesday shared a vision of a future that includes Segway-like self-balancing scooters and smartphones, and a role for the company in e-commerce, digital movies and games.
“We’d rather be called an Internet company,” Lin said during an on-stage interview at the WSJD Live technology conference in Southern. “We are really focusing on building out smartphones as the center of all these smart devices that are launched.”
Xiaomi smartphones can be used to control the company’s recently introduced Ninebot mini scooter. China-based Ninebot Inc (納恩博), owned by Xiaomi, bought US rival Segway earlier this year.
The Xiaomi handsets can also be used to remotely control a new Mi TV model, Lin said.
“We think of the TV as yet another smart device,” Lin said. “It is almost like a phone, except it is a much bigger display.”
The path ahead for Xiaomi includes providing online services and digital content, such as games, rather than just selling televisions or smartphones, Lin said.
While most of Xiaomi’s revenue now comes from hardware sales, he predicted that would shift as Xiaomi gets deeper into online services, content, e-commerce and even financial services.
That vision would have Xiaomi challenging Chinese e-commerce colossus Alibaba.
“On the hardware side, we think we have advantages over Alibaba,” Lin said.
Lin said the Chinese smartphone market is shifting to a flat, if not declining, upgrade scenario after boom years of people snapping up their first handsets, but Xiaomi is doing well in India and has sold more than 3 million smartphones there since expanding to that nation last year, he said.
The company has yet to introduce its handsets to the US market, but it has opened an online accessory store there and in major European nations, selling fitness bands, headphones and other gadgets.
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