Can Beaten Xiaomi Reclaim Its Crown?

The Chinese smartphone maker is on a downward spiral in India but is plotting a comeback

- Sumant Banerji & Gulveen Aulakh

In May 2014, Manu Jain joined Xiaomi as the India country manager. Back then, the Chinese smartphone company operated from a small room in Bengaluru. The brand was mostly unfamiliar to Indians and Jain spent time and effort helping people pronounce the name as it should be.

“Shao-mee", Jain told one of the writers of this story, a few months after he had joined.

He went on to exude a confidence anyone would have been sceptical of. “We will build a brand, and it will be nothing like you’ve seen before. The devices will sell themselves," he had said.

They did. The company cracked the market with the now-commonplace ‘flash sales’ strategy where a limited number of units are put up for sale online. Xiaomi’s phones started selling within minutes. In 2016, the company crossed a billion dollars in revenue. In 2018, it sold over 41 million units, toppling South Korean phone maker Samsung to become India’s No.1 smartphone brand. Defying pundits, the company, whose name was shortened to the easier sounding Mi, stayed in pole position for five consecutive years.

Its fall, however, has been equally dramatic. By the December quarter of 2022, Samsung had reclaimed its position as the top smartphone brand. Xiaomi’s market share continued to slide in the first two quarters of 2023—the company slipped to the third position behind Vivo, another Chinese phone maker. Unlikely, Xiaomi can top the pecking order at the end of this year.