Chinese Smartphone OEM Xiaomi Doubled Revenue To $12 Billion During 2014
The funny thing about the mobile industry is that the landscape can change in the blink of an eye. Just ask HTC, the once dominant company that helped popularize Android and reaped multiple record-breaking quarters for its efforts, only to be rendered an also-ran against the likes of Samsung and Apple. There's a similar story for BlackBerry, which these days is struggling to regain relevance in the mobile market. And if we're to take a snapshot of the mobile world today, we'd see Samsung contending with disappointing sales while privately owned Xiaomi Technology is starting to make a bigger name for itself.
The Chinese company is also starting to make more money -- Xiaomi reports having doubled its revenue to 74.3 billion yuan (~$11.97 billion in U.S. dollars) in pre-tax sales last year, representing a whopping 135 percent jump from 2013.
Unfortunately, Xiaomi didn't reveal any profit figures, though we suspect the company is still operating on a razor thin margin. In 2013, the company posted a net profit of 347.5 million yuan (~$56 million) on $4.3 billion in revenue, with an operating margin of just 1.8 percent.
Regardless of the margins, the company is doing well for itself. It sold over 61 million phones in 2014, up an enormous 227 percent from the year prior. That has to give competing phone makers cause for concern.
Looking ahead, Xiaomi expects the smartphone sector to ease a bit in 2015, so its strategy is to focus on product innovations and expanding into more overseas territories.
