Ever since Xiaomi, the popular smartphone manufacturer from China, laid out plans for expansion to Singapore, we knew that India was coming. As a confirmation to this, we have a Cnet interview of Hugo Barra talking about the company’s impending entry into the burgeoning Indian smartphone market and a tweet from the head of Google India, who had a meeting with Xiaomi’s Lin Bin and Hugo Barra as a part of the ongoing initiative. Xiaomi recently launched in Singapore, its first market outside China, and looks to expand rapidly to become a true global player.
Xiaomi is looking to the Indian market next, where Barra will be following Xiaomi’s already established modus operandi with a new office and new relationships with telecoms and partners, all alongside the company’s successful e-commerce portal as a platform to sell its handsets directly. According to Barra, this business model will allow Xiaomi to maintain its strategy of selling its smartphones at a really low price, almost close to cost.
The quote above, taken from the Cnet interview states that Xiaomi’s target will be India next, and it will be bringing its single point of sale e-commerce portal along as its own distribution channel. This unique distribution mechanism has eliminated the costs usually associated with traditional distribution. Similarly, in India, Xiaomi will directly sell all of its phones through its e-commerce portal, fulfilling its end customers’ orders. It has been seeing big success in the Chinese market, as the company is scrambling to meet high demand, and hopes to replicate the success elsewhere, as it demonstrated in Singapore recently. And then, we have a tweet from Google India’s head, saying he met with Xiaomi’s CEO, Lin Bin and Hugo Barra, which adds more relevance, in this context –
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India will be a tough market to crack, as it is already inundated with plenty of low cost, high value manufacturers like Gionee, Micromax and Karbonn to name a few. But being the direct seller, Xiaomi has the advantage of reaching a population it intends to cover, by offering at a price others can’t imagine.
Xiaomi will follow the footsteps of other Chinese companies that have ventured into the crowded Indian market, and time will tell if the manufacturer can continue its success here and in other countries. That said, are you interested to buy a Xiaomi device in India? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
More information over at the source link.
Source CNet