Xiaomi, World’s No. 3 Smartphone Maker, Says Global Sales Jumped As Profit Dropped In 4th Quarter

Xiaomi isn’t in the top rung of smartphone brands in the United States – space occupied by Apple, Samsung and Lenovo. Yet Xiaomi, the world’s No. 3 top seller, continued to expand elsewhere in the last quarter of 2021, even as its profits dropped.

Net profit at Beijing-headquartered Xiaomi, led by Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Lei Jun, plunged by 72% in the three months to December from a year earlier to 2.4 billion yuan, or $380 million, amid industry-wide component shortages, Covid-19 pandemic fallout and increased logistics costs, the company said on Monday. Lower earnings have contributed to a 45% drop in Xiaomi shares at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the past year.

Xiaomi’s fourth-quarter revenue, however, grew by 21% year over year to 85.6 billion yuan, buoyed by international sales. Sales in overseas markets rose by 23.4% to 41.6 billion yuan, accounting for 48.7% of its business.

For all of 2021, Xiaomi’s revenue from overseas markets climbed by 33.7% to 163.6 billion yuan, also accounting for nearly half of sales, the company said on Monday. Xiaomi’s share of smartphone shipments in 2021 ranked No. 1 in 14 countries and regions and among the top five in 62 countries and regions globally, including No. 2 in Europe, according to Canalys. (See details here.)

The company on Monday also reaffirmed earlier plans to enter the electric vehicle market by 2024, saying it has some 1,000 research and development staff working on the project to compete in a crowded market with Tesla and others. “Since announcing our plan to enter the smart electric vehicle business in March 2021, our progress has been ahead of schedule,” Xiaomi said. “Looking ahead, we will continue to expand research and development in core areas such as autonomous driving and smart cabin. We continue to expect mass production to officially begin in the first half of 2024.”

China, the world’s largest smartphone market, also leads in global EV sales.

Xiaomi’s stock jumped by 6% in Hong Kong on Monday, closing at $14.20.

Lei is worth $11.9 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires Index.

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@rflannerychina