Xiaomi doubles smartphone bet on India

oped markets like Europe.

Barra once said Xiaomi was prepared to enter the US market, though for now it only sells ear buds and power banks to Americans.

Its overseas expansion will now mainly focus on emerging markets such as eastern Europe, Russia and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.

Back home, Xiaomi is on the verge of becoming an also-ran, a painful reversal from the stunning ascent that crowned it the country’s most valuable technology startup in 2014. It has ceded ground rapidly to local rivals in just the past two years: Oppo and Vivo dominated by enlisting tens of thousands of retailers in rural areas and lower-tier cities, while Huawei’s high-end devices appealed to more statusconscious users.

Xiaomi took 7.4 percent of the Chinese market in the last quarter of 2016, lagging its three main rivals, according to IDC.

Lei is now re-tooling the seven-year-old online-only sales model that originally catapulted Xiaomi to the top, to let brick-and-mortar-stores shoulder an increasing amount of the sales burden. It plans to open 1,000 stores in the coming three years across China, and double its offline retail presence in India.

“Everyone realizes the online market is very limited,” Lei said, explaining Xiaomi’s new-found focus on physical retail.

While new products require spending on marketing and research, Lei said Xiaomi for now didn’t need to raise additional capital. He also wouldn’.t address persistent speculation about an initial public offering down the road.

“We have more than enough cash,” he said.