India could be in top two markets for Xiaomi

NEW DELHI: Xiaomi, China's largest smartphone maker which is among the world’s top 4, believes India could be its second-largestmarket by volumesoon as it continues to get massive traction here when such devices are the fastest-growing consumer category. After selling more than 400,000 smartphones in India, including the entry-level Redmi 1s and highly popular Mi 3, since launching in July, demand for Xiaomi phones has surged, even though the Indian Air Force raised security concerns, which the companyhassought toaddress.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that India as a market has the potential to be our second-largest market worldwide and a significant contributor to our global shipments,” Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's VP of international markets, told ET. “We will workhardtowardsmakingthathappen.”

Barra was upbeat about prospects in India, where Xiaomi has targeted making 100,000 smartphones available for weekly flash sales, 10 times the number of devices it started out with, to meet unprecedented demand on e-commerce site Flipkart, its only outlet in the country.

The company continues to struggle with supplies.“We are still working to meet our goal of having 100,000 units steadily available every week,” Barrasaid.Overthepast couple of weeks, Xiaomi has faced production and logistics-related difficulties, but Barra is hopeful of hitting the required volume steadily in the coming weeks.