Xiaomi has set up a business headquarters in Africa eyeing the growth potential of the handset market in the region, Digitimes reported Wednesday citing industry sources.
Xiaomi will also team up with Jumia Technologies, a leading pan-African e-commerce operator, to ramp up sales of its products in Africa, said the sources.
The report said a number of Xiaomi's smartphones, including Xiaomi Mi A3, Mi 9 and Redmi 7 along with Mi Band devices will be available first at Jumia's e-commerce platform.
Further, to strengthen its position in the market, the company is also expected to deploy an offline sales strategy and will be granting distribution rights of its handsets in Africa to China-based integrated platform service provider Shenzhen Keting Digital Technology.
During the Global Sources Mobile Electronics 2019, to solicit potential buyers and particularly those from Africa, Shenzhen Keting Digital Technology was showcasing a range of products from Xiaomi as well as its sub-brand Redmi.
The company has been helping Xiaomi as well as other Chinese brand Gionee to distribute their handsets in a number of markets in Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana and Rwanda.
This is no surprise for industry watchers who closely follow Xiaomi and may pose a bigger threat to Transsion, which is a Shenzhen-based company and the No. 1 phone brands in Africa.
Canalys Data showed that smartphone shipment fell 6 percent in China in the second quarter, marking the 9th consecutive decline.
Among the major players, Huawei was the only one that saw shipment growth. In the second quarter, Huawei shipments grew by 31 percent with market share reaching 38.2 percent.
OPPO ranked second with an 18.3 percent market share, but shipments were down by 18%.Vivo shipments were also down by 19 percent with market share being 17.5%.
Xiaomi suffered the most with shipments down by 20 percent and market share falling to 11.8 percent.
But as cnTechPost noted 10 days ago, there is something interesting shown in Xiaomi's interim report file to the Hong Kong stock exchange where it was listed.
Africa's phone king faces biggest threat ever from Huawei and Xiaomi
In the first half of this year, the company's global smartphone shipments reached 60 million, up 9.8 percent year on year.
With domestic sales down significantly but global shipments posting remarkable growth, one can clearly tell that Xiaomi's shipments were growing fast in overseas markets.
