By now, it’s pretty clear that 2017 has been a great year for Xiaomi. The company has already announced that it is on target for a new shipments record this year, with 2015’s 70 million smartphone shipments having been reached in October. In India, the Chinese OEM is now tied with Samsung at the top of the Indian smartphone market, and its budget phones have become bestsellers in the country.
Xiaomi has also started expansion in Western Europe. Recently, reports stated that the company was in talks for a $50 billion IPO in 2018. Now, a report by Reuters states that Xiaomi is on target to earn revenue of $17 billion to $18 billion this year, and thus top its annual revenue target by as much as 18 percent. Xiaomi confirmed to the publication that it has topped the $15 billion annual revenue, and a separate Bloomberg report states that Xiaomi earned $15 billion revenue in the first ten months of 2017.
The Reuters report quotes projections by unnamed analysts as saying that Xiaomi could earn a net profit of $1 billion in 2017. It’s important to note that this estimate is based on unnamed sources, and the calculations (which are said to be based on data on operating costs provided by the company) could be incorrect.
Only two weeks ago, reports stated that Xiaomi was preparing for a $50 billion IPO. Now, that number is stated to be $100 billion, which could potentially make it the world’s biggest, according to Reuters. This is because analysts expect Xiaomi’s unconfirmed profits to continue growing in 2018 (with an estimate of $2 billion) and 2019. It’s worth noting that Xiaomi has never disclosed its expected profit so far.
The Reuters report notes that Xiaomi was valued at $46 billion in a 2014 funding round, which made it the world’s most valuable startup for a brief period. It goes on to state that the company’s sales stagnated over the next two years. (The reason was that the company grew too much, too fast, according the company’s CEO, who also admitted that 2016 had been a rough year for the company).
Since then, the situation has changed. Xiaomi has expanded its product portfolio by selling accessories and home appliances in China and a few other markets. It also has a newfound focus in offline retail in markets such as India, with Mi Home brick-and-mortar stores, Mi Preferred Partners, and collaboration with large format retail chains. Reuters notes that according to IDC, Xiaomi overtook Apple to become the fourth latest smartphone manufacturer in China in Q3 2017.
The company has also has re-launched sales in many countries (it now operates in 60 in total). The report quoted an unnamed source as saying that the company was worth approximately $55 billion at the end of June. It also quoted an IDC manager as saying that this was a good time for the company to list (for an IPO).
Xiaomi recently stated that the upcoming Mi 7 flagship would feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip. It has also launched budget phones with 18:9 displays in the form of the Redmi 5 and the Redmi 5 Plus in China, and doesn’t seem to want to slow down its momentum.
Source 1: ReutersVia 2: Bloomberg
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