Smartphone maker Xiaomi expands into France and Italy
May 29, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is planning to raise USD10 billion in a Hong Kong public listing this summer, has launched sales in France and Italy. In France Xiaomi will sell products through its first Mi Store in Paris, via its own e-commerce platform mi.com, and on other online and offline platforms including Amazon and Cdiscount. The plan is to open five authorized Xiaomi stores in Paris in 2018. The Beijing-based smartphone brand has established agreements with telecoms carriers in France, including Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free. To date the company has established a presence in 74 markets around the world.
Smartphone shipments in western Europe slowed in the first quarter, declining 13.9% year-on-year compared to a 6.3% drop for all of Europe, according to market research firm Canalys. The French market saw one of the biggest declines, with shipments down 23.2% in the quarter over the same period a year ago. However, Xiaomi and fellow Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies bucked the trend to post solid growth in Europe in the first quarter, boosting shipments by more than 999% and 38.6% respectively, while leading brands Samsung and Apple saw 15.4% and 5.4% declines respectively.
Six months ago Xiaomi entered Spain, its first stop in western Europe, reaching the No 3 spot in that country in the first quarter. In the same period Xiaomi was ranked the No 1 smartphone vendor in India, accounting for about 30% of the market, and was the second largest smartphone maker in Indonesia. Xiaomi won fourth place in terms of volume in Europe, shipping 2.4 million smartphones with around 1,000% year-on-year growth, accounting for 5.3% of total smartphone shipments to Europe.
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