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"The
worst is over," Lei said at an annual meeting in Beijing,
describing 2016 as a "make-up year".
Seven-year-old Xiaomi was briefly the world's most valuable
startup and had hopes to be China's equivalent of Apple Inc. But
it fell out of the top five in China for smartphone vendors in
2016, after reaching No. 2 in 2015.
Last year saw increased competition from compatriots Huawei
Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], Oppo and Vivo while growth in the
global smartphone market stagnated.
In response, privately held Xiaomi said it made adjustments to
several business areas, including increasing its offline retail
presence and pushing for more overseas business.
Lei did not detail Xiaomi's financial results but said the
smartphone vendor ranked among the top three in India with sales
of over $1 billion, and that revenue from its smart hardware
ecosystem exceeded 15 billion yuan. He also said online revenue
doubled, without elaborating.
For 2017, Xiaomi plans to open 200 more Mi Home stores and a
total of 1,000 stores over the next three years to strengthen
its offline retail operations, since e-commerce makes up only 20
percent of China's overall smartphone market, Lei said.
At present, Xiaomi has 54 Mi Home stores, he said.
Developing artificial intelligence and internet finance will
also be among 2017 growth strategies, he said. Xiaomi is the
second-largest shareholder of Sichuan XW Bank, launched in
December.
Lei said Xiaomi has over 300 people working on loans, insurance,
securities, finance and payments, as well as securing the
necessary licenses.
(Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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