Xiaomi said its revenue rose to 45.24 billion yuan or $6.58 billion for the three months ended June 30 – fuelled by smartphone business — from 26.88 billion yuan, Reuters reported.
Xiaomi, whose cheap smartphones have become popular in price-conscious countries such as India and China, said its revenue from overseas markets more than doubled from the year-ago period.
Xiaomi has recently displaced Samsung, the world’s leading phone maker, as the number one smartphone brand in India.
The smartphone driven company’s international revenue was 16.4 billion yuan in the quarter, accounting for 36.3 percent of total revenue. Sales of internet-connected devices, including smart TVs, also increased rapidly.
China-based smartphone maker’s 68.3 percent increase in revenue was mainly due to strong smartphone sales complemented a jump in revenue at its smaller, but fast-growing connected devices business.
Research firm IDC says Xiaomi is the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world — behind Samsung, Huawei and Apple.
Xiaomi said it generated 70 percent of its revenue from selling its popular and mostly cheap smartphones last year. But the margins on its phones, which run on an Android-derived operating system called MIUI, are razor thin.
Gross margins at its smartphone business was 8.8 percent last year. By comparison, margins on Apple Inc’s iPhone X or iPhone 8 are around 60 percent, according to analysts.
The company has sought to be seen as an internet-based firm and expects its smartphones to drive traffic to its own app store in the longer term to boost that business and sales from advertising on its platform. This business also makes internet-connected home appliances and gadgets, including scooters, air purifiers and rice cookers.
Xiaomi posted a net profit of 14.63 billion yuan for the period compared to a net loss of 11.97 billion yuan in the year-ago period.
Xiaomi previously reported revenue of 114.62 billion yuan for 2017, an increase of 67.5 percent from a year earlier. Xiaomi said its operating profit rose more than three fold in the same period.
The company’s attractive pricing for its phones has helped it grow quickly in developing markets where it is taking on Samsung Electronics and Apple.
It offers a suite of smartphones that target budget to mid-range buyers and has launched sales in almost 30 countries, including India, where it toppled Samsung as the biggest smartphone vendor earlier this year.
This is the first set of results released by Xiaomi since it raised $4.72 billion in a high-profile initial public offering in June, valuing the firm at about $54 billion, almost half of earlier industry estimates of $100 billion.
