Xiaomi Passes Its Smartphone Shipment Target For 2017

Xiaomi has shipped 70 million smartphones for the first 10 months of this year, completing its shipment target for 2017, said Lei Jun, Xiaomi's founder and CEO.

The Chinese budget phone maker, which is looking to ship 100 million handsets next year, has also achieved the 100-billion-yuan sales target for the whole year.

As the company has shipped 70 million for 10 months in 2017, its shipment target for 2018 is well-justified, Lei told a group of Chinese media in Shenzhen, according to a NetEase report on Sunday. Xiaomi's previous best for a year is 71 million handsets.

On Sunday, the company opened its first flagship store "Mi Home" in Shenzhen, the Chinese technology hub that's home to a number of well-known firms including Tencent and Huawei. The store in Shenzhen is the largest "Mi Home" it has ever opened -- a two-storey shop owning a space of 650 square metres.

"Xiaomi has an even bolder plan to become a top 500 enterprise in the world in 2018," Lei told media after the launch of the new flagship shop, adding that he expects Xiaomi's revenue to exceed 1 trillion yuan in a decade.

Xiaomi reclaimed the fifth spot in global smartphone rankings for the third quarter of this year, according to IDC. The company shipped a total of 27.6 million handsets in the quarter, up 102.6 percent from the same period last year. Market share also expanded to 7.4 percent from 3.7 percent in the third quarter in 2016.

Lei admitted that the company encountered difficulty in sales growth during 2015 and 2016 when the internet-concentrated brand failed to properly shift its business models from online sales to offline channels.

Management was also under stress after the number of Xiaomi employees exceeded 10,000, from only a dozen when it was firstly established, according to another Chinese report, citing Lei from the same event.

Xiaomi has been pushing for the opening of physical stores as smartphone sales on internet platforms have been declining notably in the past few years. The Chinese company has now opened 228 physical stores across more than 20 provinces in China since opening its first in March 2016.

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