Xiaomi Corp (小米) delivered a 68 percent revenue jump and quarterly profit in its maiden earnings report, as the Chinese smartphone giant made strides overseas while fending off a challenge from local rivals, such as Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀).
The results — its first since raising US$5.4 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) — could help Xiaomi get past an anti-climactic trading debut last month.
Net income came to 14.7 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in the three months ended June, versus a 12 billion yuan loss a year earlier.
Revenue climbed to 45.2 billion yuan, but its pace decelerated from the first quarter.
The dramatic reversal in the bottom line came about because Xiaomi booked a one-time gain of 22.5 billion yuan by revaluing a swath of preferred stock in the aftermath of its debut.
Without that windfall, its operating loss came to 7.6 billion yuan — reflecting the company’s philosophy of selling phones at near-cost so it can drive the sale of services from music to video, a la Apple Inc.
Xiaomi is trying to couch itself as a high-growth Internet company — a narrative consistently touted by billionaire cofounder Lei Jun (雷軍).
The Internet services business remains small, accounting for just 9 percent of revenue in the quarter, but that segment’s potential is one reason Xiaomi managed to price its IPO at multiples far higher than celebrated tech names such as Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Facebook Inc.
Revenue from that division rose 64 percent to 4 billion yuan in the June quarter, thanks mostly to ad sales.
“Xiaomi posted somewhat encouraging results today, [but it] may not have done much to assuage concerns about its business model,” Kaiyuan Capital Ltd (開源) managing director Brock Silvers said.
“Xiaomi has billed itself as an Internet company deserving a tech growth multiple, and the market continues to expect evidence of a transformation,” Silvers said.
The stock yesterday closed up about 1.6 percent in Hong Kong trading, just above its IPO price of HK$17.
In the short run, Xiaomi faces no shortage of challenges, particularly in the smartphone business that yields two-thirds of its revenue.
Global demand is on the wane, threatening the device sales it depends on to grow its user base.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six