Xiaomi ropes in Jabong co-founder Manu Jain to spearhead India operations

NEW DELHI: Xiaomi has hired Jabong co-founder Manu Kumar Jain to head its India operations, a person familiar with the matter said, signaling the Chinese smartphone maker’s moves to kick-start operations in the highly lucrative but fragmented smartphone market.

Jain, who quit Jabong earlier this year, is the first hire by Xiaomi to help establish base in the country. The company is expected to launch the first devices later this year, the person told ET. Jain couldn't be reached for comment.

Founded in June 2010 in China, Xiaomi is one of the fastest-growing smartphone vendors coming out of Asia. The company’s intention to enter the Indian market revealed by its Global Vice President and former Google Vice President, Hugo Barra in an interview with CNET earlier this year.

Barra then said that Xiaomi would look for associations with Indian telcos and other partners, besides bringing smartphones via its own e-commerce site.

Xiaomi plays around affordability and value for money with its devices, which could go well with India’s price sensitive customers. However, the biggest challenge for Xiaomi in its bid to make a mark in the country will be to tackle huge competition from domestic handset players such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava, who have been able to flood the market with affordable devices.

Besides, it has market leader Samsung to contend with as well, apart from Motorola which has made a successful re-entry into the Indian market.;

It is expected that the entry of Xiaomi will further catalyse the Indian smartphone market, which has recently seen the re-emergence of Motorola and Philips. The entry of Xiaomi could bring down prices of devices in high-end segment - an area where Samsung and Sony lead the market, analysts said.

The company typically operates with a disruptive business model, allowing it to offer high-quality builds at very low price points. In order to maintain a minimum margin on its hardware, the company outsources the manufacturing of its smartphones and keeps tight control over its supply chain and cost.

Xiaomi's business model for the Indian market is still not known, but it is likely that it will replicate the global model in the country as well, analysts say.

Globally, the core strength of Xiaomi’s success is deep consumer engagement. Xiaomi develops its product after taking feedback from consumers.

It operates many user forums in as many as 21 countries globally, which it monitors closely for feedback from consumers for development of new products and features.

The company’s primary retail channel is its website, which helps it to reduce cost and avoid the additional margin requirements of third-party vendors.

In India, Motorola had also opted for an e-commerce route for its smartphones and had tied-up with Flipkart.