Xiaomi India Claims to Have Sold 1 Million Smartphones in 18 Days

Xiaomi’s business strategy of making smartphones with decent specifications and pricing them reasonably has worked really well in the value-conscious Indian market. The company was welcomed to India in 2014 with much fanfare, introducing the country to flash sales where phones went out of stock in seconds. Now, the Chinese company has announced that it has achieved yet another milestone in the country by selling 1 million smartphone units in just 18 days. To celebrate this feat CEO Lei Jun wrote an ‘open letter’ to thank Xiaomi Indian employees and fans.

In his letter, Jun lauded his employees’ hard work, and praised the efforts of Vice President of International Hugo Barra and Xiaomi’s India Head Manu Kumar Jain in furthering the Mi brand in India. Jun thanked the Mi India fans as well, and even highlighted some important milestones that Xiaomi has achieved since the past year.

In August last year, Jun says, Xiaomi became the first OEM to participate in the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Between July and August this year, Jun says Xiaomi became the top smartphone brand in the country according to IDC’s estimates. Furthermore, the company has managed to sell 2.3 million Redmi Note 3 devices in just six months, making it the best-selling device of Xiaomi.

“India is an extremely important market in Xiaomi’s globalisation strategy. It has become our largest market outside of mainland China. 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,” Jun said in his letter.

Just to recap, Xiaomi entered India in July 2014 with the launch of Mi 3 and partnered exclusively with Flipkart to sell the smartphone through flash sales. In one year, Xiaomi managed to launch its own website, app, and expanded its partnership to include Amazon and Snapdeal as sellers, as well as many other retail outlets like The Mobile Store and Airtel Store, before expanding its reach to offline retail channels. In April 2015, Xiaomi even launched the Mi 4i, its first smartphone exclusively made for the Indian audience.