Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi attracted attention again. Its products are very popular in the Chinese internal market, but the company is willing to expand further to other places. Singapore is one of the steps on the way.
Xiaomi enters Singapore and considers other markets
Singapore, recently rated as the world’s most expansive city, is a highly competitive market for mobile devices. Xiaomi decided to sell its flagship product, the Mi3 smartphone, for the price of $332. Like in China, Xiaomi decided to base its distribution model on online sales.
In February, Xiaomi introduced in Singapore the low-cost Redmi smartphone, which sold out within 8 minutes after its first online release. The same year in July, Redmi Note, a high powered budget Android device, was sold out in Singapore within 42 seconds. The people were excited about a device with good specifications at such a low price.
Hugo Barra, a former executive at Google, at that time was responsible for Xiaomi’s world expansion as Vice President of the company. The company entered Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and then other Asian countries. Soon it expanded to other continents.
Now, Apple and Samsung have been dominating the smartphone industry for almost a decade. Both Apple and Samsung own around 28% of the market. What is the third-largest smartphone brand? No other than Xiaomi. The Chinese company has over 12% of the total market share. Its huge commercial success is remarkable.