Wikipedia
Xiaomi Inc. (Chinese Mandarin: , , literally " millet technology"; ) is a privately owned Chinese electronics company headquartered in Beijing. 4th largest smartphone maker. Xiaomi designs, develops, and sells smartphones, mobile apps, laptops and related consumer electronics.
Since the release of its first smartphone in August 2011, Xiaomi has gained market share in mainland China and expanded into developing a wider range of consumer electronics, including a smart home ( IoT) device ecosystem. The company's founder and CEO is Lei Jun, China's 23rd richest person according to Forbes. The company sold over 60 million smartphones in 2014.
The company has over 8,000 employees, mainly in mainland China, India , Malaysia, and Singapore, and is expanding to other countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Brazil.
According to IDC, in October 2014 Xiaomi was the third largest smartphone maker in the world, following Samsung and Apple Inc., and followed by Lenovo and LG. Xiaomi became the largest smartphone vendor in China in 2014, having overtaken Samsung, according to an IDC report.
At the end of December 2014, Xiaomi became the world’s most valuable technology start-up after it received US$1.1 billion funding from investors, making Xiaomi's valuation more than US$46 billion. Xiaomi entered the Indian market in July 2014 and since then expanded rapidly in India. Earlier, Xiaomi used to sell exclusively on Flipkart until it announced its partnership with both Amazon.com and Snapdeal on 7 April 2015. This is seen as a bid by the smartphone manufacturer to expand its retail base in India. It has also teamed up with AirTel Store and The Mobile Store to sell some of its selected devices. Later, in Q1 2015, it started its own store and stopped selling its accessories to online stores. On its first anniversary in India, it launched its own Mi Store App. On August 11, 2015, it started its first factory in Sricity, Andhra Pradesh in a partnership with Foxconn.