BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Xiaomi posted record-high quarterly smartphone sales in the second quarter of this year, the company announced Friday.
Xiaomi's smartphone shipments reached 23.16 million in Q2, surging 70 percent compared with Q1, according to Xiaomi chairman and CEO Lei Jun, who said that the company is once again embarking on a rapid growth trajectory.
Lei attributed the rebound in smartphone sales to enhanced investment in research and development, integration of online and offline retail as well as growing overseas expansion.
The company released its first smartphone chip Surge S1 in February, becoming the fourth company in the world capable of producing both smartphones and chips.
In Q2, Xiaomi increased cooperation with other platforms which helped it rank number one in terms of smartphone sales on e-commerce platforms JD.com, Tmall, and Suning during the mid-year online shopping festival in June.
Meanwhile, the company has been expanding its offline presence, with 123 Mi Home stores open across China as of July 7.
Xiaomi's revenue in India in the first half of the year went up 328 percent year on year, becoming the second top brand overall in the Indian smartphone market, according to Lei.
Competing for global market share represents the third wave of opportunity that will shape the Chinese smartphone industry, following the first wave of urban Chinese smartphone adoption and the second wave of new smartphone users from China's third and fourth-tier cities, Lei pointed out.
Xiaomi will need to hire thousands of research and development professionals for its smartphone business in the next 12 months and further bolster its innovation capabilities, according to Lei.
He said he is confident in the company achieving its revenue goal of 100 billion yuan (14.71 billion U.S. dollars) for the year and it aims to ship 100 million smartphones in 2018.
