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The figures helps shine light on the rapid
growth of the privately-held tech firm which has risen to become
the world's No.3 smartphone maker and is challenging Apple Inc
and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as well as domestic rivals
such as Huawei Technology Co Ltd.
Xiaomi sold a total of just over 61 million phones in 2014, up
227 percent from a year earlier, Lei added in a post on his Sina
Weibo microblog account.
The post did not give a related profit figure, although a filing
last month showed that the firm was grappling with razor thin
margins as it rapidly expands. A part of the business made
around 347.5 million yuan net profit last year on revenue of
26.6 billion yuan and an operating margin of just 1.8 percent.
Lei added that growth in China's smartphone market would ease in
2015 and that the firm would look to focus on innovating new
products and pushing into more overseas markets.
Lei, who is both chairman and chief executive, claims 77.8
percent ownership of the company he co-founded in 2010, while
unnamed shareholders split the remainder, according to a recent
filing.
Last week Xiaomi raised $1.1 billion in a round of funding that
valued the firm at $45 billion, from investors including
All-Stars Investment, DST Global, Hopu Investment Management,
and Yunfeng Capital, as well as Singapore sovereign wealth fund
GIC.
($1 = 6.2046 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan)
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