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Xiaomi claim to have sold 1 million devices in 18 days in India

Yash GargOctober 19, 2016

While talk about Xiaomi’s slowdown in it’s home country is rife, the brand seems to be doing quite okay in it’s second home — India.

In an ‘open letter’, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun just thanked the ‘Mi India family’ for having achieved the feat of selling 1 million devices in 18 days. Much like other countries, Oct-Dec is the hot selling season in India with festivals like Dussehra and Diwali being celebrated.

Despite what’s going on in China, what Xiaomi have achieved in just over 2 years of existence in India is quite remarkable. Almost everyone within my circles uses a Xiaomi phone, with others asking me where and how they can get one.

Coming back, Jun mentioned that Xiaomi are looking to capture the largest market share in India in 3-5 years… which to be honest, is going to be quite an uphill task given the hostile nature of the market, low brand loyalty, and more.

You can read the open letter below.

Dear Xiaomi Friends,

Yesterday we set an incredible record in India by selling more than 1 million smartphones within 18 days. On behalf of Xiaomi’s management, I’d like to congratulate the entire Mi India team for this outstanding performance.

A big round of thanks to Manu and Hugo for their outstanding leadership, to everyone at Mi India for their dedication, and to the business teams in China for their support. I am extremely proud of each one of you! I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all our partners in India, especially Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, for their support.

And very importantly, I wish to thank every Indian Mi fan for the love they have shown to Xiaomi, which is the driving force behind our success.

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India is an extremely important market in Xiaomi’s globalization strategy. It has become our largest market outside of mainland China. In the past two years, we have witnessed several exciting milestones in India:

August 2015: We became the first smartphone brand to participate in Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
July to August 2016: As per IDC, we became the #1 online smartphone brand in the country.
September 2016: As per IDC, we became the third-largest smartphone vendor within India’s Top 30 cities with 8.4% market share.
September 2016: Redmi Note 3 became the best-selling device in the online market with over 2.3 million devices sold in 6 months.

When we entered India, there was extremely fierce competition. We have achieved such extraordinary growth in India firstly because of our vision to bring innovation to everyone with our high-quality products at incredible prices. Secondly, we have an amazing team in India. We will continue investing in India to deliver the best products to our Mi fans — expanding our supply, ensuring the high quality of our products, and further improving our after-sales service.

The core of the Xiaomi model is creating high-quality products, making friends with our users, and operating our business extremely efficiently. This model has been proven in China. I believe that the Xiaomi model will resonate across the world, starting with India.

I am confident that with the sustained efforts of our entire Xiaomi family, we will be able to capture the largest market share in India within 3-5 years! Mi India, let’s make history together!

Thank you!

Lei Jun

On 19 Oct., 2016

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About the author
Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91
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