Within two years, Chinese handset maker and Internet services company, Xiaomi will go in for domestic manufacture of devices that they will sell in India, Xiaomi Technology India Pvt. Ltd. head, Manu Kumar Jain said.
“We have just launched our India facility at SriCity and eventually our aim is that all devices sold in India should be made in India,” he told The Hindu during an interaction. He said India was the second unit outside China (first in Brazil) and was the most strategic market after China.
He said at present the India facility was owned and operated by Foxconn, Xiaomi’s strategic partner “with investments by both.” Mr. Jain, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta sounded happy with the ‘ease of business’ in India indicating that the company was pleasantly surprised about the pace of work at starting activities at its unit. “What we thought would take two years actually took less than half and six months after the announcement of our India plans we were ready,” he said, adding that Ratan Tata had been mentor for Xiaomi’s India operations.
“We design every part of the product and we bring in the components,” Mr. Jain said adding that this was the first market where designs were made specifically to suit the market.
On the security issue, he dismissed those reports as rumours, saying that while the company would be “happy to collaborate with any authority on this issue,” it has already moved its servers to Singapore and the U.S.
Xiaomi, which was founded in 2010 by Lei Jun, creates hardware, software and internet services incorporating customer and fan feedback (from social network) into its product range, which currently includes the Mi Note Pro, Mi Note, Mi 4, Redmi 2, Mi TV, Mi Band and other accessories. It sold over 61 million handsets in 2014, and launched products in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Indonesia and Brazil.
In India it has sold over three million smart phones since its entry in July 2014 and its devices are now sold through Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal besides its own Mi.com. It also sells offline.
“The mobile ecosystem in India is growing at a very fast pace... We are much more than just a smartphone company, as we also provide Internet services ..and we believe that we can contribute greatly to India’s growth as a technological hub,” Mr. Jain said.
Besides online, offline is also a major option and by 2016, around 30 per cent of sales may be offline and there are no differential pricing. Mr.Jain dismissed suggestions of a contraction in the China market. “China market will not contract,” he said adding that the company’s business model works in countries where “affordability is a challenge, carriers do not subsidise phone sets and e-commerce is just taking off.”
