An inside look at Xiaomi India

Lei Jun (on the right), founder and CEO of Xiaomi and Manu Kumar Jain (on the left), Vice President of Xiaomi and Managing Director of Xiaomi India

Editor’s note:

We have become the number one smartphone vendor in India in Q3 2017 as per IDC. With a market share of 23.5% and 9.2 million smartphones shipped in the quarter, Xiaomi has become the fastest growing smartphone brand in India, surging nearly 300% percent year-on-year! The following is a letter from Manu Kumar Jain, who oversees Xiaomi India.

Three years ago, we started our India journey…

We started with a clear goal in mind: to create high quality products and offer them at prices that allowed us to bring our innovation to everyone. We didn’t have a big team or a big budget. What we did have was extremely innovative products, a handful of dedicated people, the backing of our Mi Fans and lastly, a clear goal to disrupt the market.

We were told that our dreams were too ambitious. We were told that we would fail. Like the hundreds of startups that have come and gone, we were told we would just be another brick in the wall. But here we are three years down the line, achieving the impossible.

I’m really happy to announce that today, Xiaomi is the No.1 smartphone brand in India. This is, without doubt, the biggest feat we’ve achieved since entering the Indian market.

To put things into perspective, we started our India journey in 2014. Based on what we know, no other brand has ever managed such a feat in India within such a short period of time.

To make it easier to digest, let’s crunch on some numbers. As per IDC’s report for Q3 2017, Xiaomi India shipped 9.2 million units in this quarter and commands a 23.5% market share.

Some other trivia from the IDC report which I’d like to share with you:

We continue to be the fastest growing smartphone brand in India with a year-on-year growth of nearly 300%.

We have witnessed a 91% growth from last quarter to now.

With a 51% market share, we continue to maintain leadership in the online smartphone market for three consecutive quarters .

. We started building our offline channel earlier this year, and within just two quarters, we’ve managed to double our offline sales and are the fourth largest brand within the offline segment.

The blockbuster Redmi Note 4 continues to be the #1 best-selling smartphone for the third consecutive quarter, a feat absolutely unheard of for a 10-month old product.

Three of the top five selling smartphones this quarter are Redmi smartphones – Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A.

I’d like to dedicate this milestone to each and every one of the Xiaomi India staff, Mi Fans, and all those who trusted us with their hard-earned money. Thank you for putting in the effort to take this company forward. Thank you for doing the impossible.

Until next time,

Manu