How Xiaomi plans to win Indian market with IPO money

Xiaomi is not only a mobile phone company in China but also deals in finance and entertainment. In the past one year, the handset maker is also trying to replicate the China model in India and has been investing in both finance and entertainment business in the country as well.

Late last year, Xiaomi revealed its plan that it wants to become the Internet company in India.

Now, weeks after raising $4.5 billion via IPO in Hong Kong stock exchange, Xiaomi plans to invest in Internet services, especially IoT space, and also gets into the premium smartphone segment in the country.

In an interview with ET, Xiaomi India head Manu Jain said the company plans to invest 30 per cent of the raised amount in the global expansion and India is an important market which will receive investments too.

The phone maker's MiMusic, file-sharing app Mi Drop, MiBrowser and shopping app MiStore are some of the services already available in the country. It recently launched MiCredit in India to offer loans up to Rs 1 lakh.

Besides, the Chinese company has also become aggressive on investments and so far invested in 10 startups in India. The investments in social networking app Sharechat, digital content platform Hungama, and lending startup Krazybee, Samosa Labs, among others, are in align with its strategy of building internet services.

It is also planning to bet big on video content. Early this year, Xiaomi made two announcements — the launch of largely-discussed Mi TV and hardly-covered partnership with Sourav Ganguly-backed short-format video content platform Flickstree.

Hugo Barra, Former vice-president of Xiaomi, had earlier revealed as the company’s user base is growing in India, along with increasing 4G penetration, he expects to see more and more consumption of digital media through Xiaomi devices.

Despite the huge growth in India, not all-is-well for the company. In the April-June 2018 quarter, Xiaomi lost the leadership position in India to Samsung as that later regained its top spot with a 29 per cent market share compared to the 28 per cent held by Xiaomi, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

Besides, Xiaomi that exemplifies growth in the phone category has failed to maintain a sustainable pace. The company’s recent IPO launch is also a case in point–when it raised $4.7 billion (less than half of the earlier amount) at $54 billion (almost half of the projected valuation of $100 billion.

The development was first reported by ET.