China's Xiaomi sells 23 mln smartphones in Q2, targets 100 mln in 2018

Xiaomi sold 23.16 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 70 percent on the previous three months. Lei Jun, founder and CEO of the Chinese smartphone maker, on Friday said the company aims to ship more than 100 million phones in 2018.

Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun demonstrates the newest Xiaomi-developed chip. /VCG Photo

Lei attributed explosive growth in Xiaomi's global business in 2017 to its innovation, as well as the adoption of new online and offline retail models.

According to Lei, Xiaomi's performance in India is "especially encouraging." Revenue in the first half of the year is "up 328 percent year-on-year" in the Asian country. Meanwhile, the company opened 123 Mi Home stores across China with another 14 due to open on July 8, said Lei.

In fact, Xiaomi had suffered a slump in previous quarters. According to IDC, Xiaomi’s shipments plunged in 2016 and the company was ranked just fifth in Chinese phone shipments in the first quarter of 2017.

Xiaomi builds offline retail stores across China. /VCG Photo

On one hand, rival smartphone makers such as Oppo and Vivo are encroaching on the low-end market in smaller cities. On the other, Huawei has successfully attracted a lot of consumers by launching a series of high-end smartphones like P9 and P10.

(CGTN)