The second quarter has been kind to Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi, which recorded a rise of 64% in revenue to come at 87.8 billion yuan, and over 80% in its net income, which came at $1.28 billion. This meteoric rise was spearheaded by the jump in its smartphone revenue, which grew to $9.1 billion following the shipment of no less than 52.9 million units in the quarter.
However, Xiaomi has not managed to dethrone South Korea’s Samsung from the top position, although it did overtake Apple to come to the second position. The company has ambitious plans for the future, including a goal to lead the smartphone manufacturing sector in three years and surpass Samsung as well.
One of the factors behind Xiaomi’s meteoric rise (it clocked a year-on-year growth of 83%) was its chief rival Huawei foundering in the waters due to the sanctions of the US government – Huawei’s declining fortunes enabled Xiaomi and other manufacturers to fill the void and rapidly gain market share both in the domestic and international arenas.
In the domestic market, it continues to fall behind Oppo and Vivo in terms of raw unit shipments. However, it has become the leading vendor in Europe for the first time in the second quarter after it shipped nearly 13 million units to gain a market share of 25%.
Revenue from the Internet of Things (IoT) and lifestyle products segment recorded a rise of 36% in revenue to come to $3.2 billion. Additionally, its internet services segment recorded a year-on-year growth of 19.1% to reach a record 7 billion yuan.
“In the high end 4,000 to 5,000 yuan segment, our handset shipments reached 12 million units in the first half … this compared with 10 million for the whole of last year,” said Xiaomi president Wang Xiang in a conference call after the results were released. “We are continuing to promote premium phone development and we have achieved very good results.”
You may remember that Xiaomi had earlier pledged $10 billion to make a foray into the EV sector and its smart EV project over the next 10 years, and now it has delivered on its promise.
After the results were released, the company also announced the acquisition of autonomous driving technology firm Deepmotion for nearly $77.37 million in order to fast-track the development of its smart electric vehicle (EV) arm. This makes Xiaomi the latest Chinese giant to enter the EV industry after Baidu, Alibaba, Didi, and BYD.
The EV sector has gained much traction in recent times as firms across the country have finally realized its potential. Add to that its eco-friendly nature, and you have got a booming sector which is the need of the hour. Xiang said that they would be expediting the development of Level 4 autonomous driving technology and hire the best talent, as well as reduce the launch lead time for its own EV products.
