From DailyTech: Xiaomi, Inc. -- a Chinese gadget maker who's rocketed to third place in global sales and first place in sales in its home country -- reported some results of its record-setting 2014 year of sales, hot on the heels of its recent $45B USD valuation.
The OEM, who just raised $1.1B USD in the venture capital round that gave it the fresh valuation, seems destined for an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future. An IPO would make CEO and cofounder Lei Jun -- who owns 77.8 percent of the company according to a regulatory filing -- one of China's richest men. Lei Jun founded the company in 2010 after serving for years as a top executive in China's software market.
The CEO announced via his official Webio microblog account that Xiaomi had sold a little over 61.12 million smartphones in 2015 -- up 227 percent over 2013's sales volume. He did not share tablet sales figures, but Xiaomi is also is estimated to have sold several million tablets.
In a followup post, Mr. Lei announced that Xiaomi's pre-tax revenue had risen 135 percent on a year-to-year basis to reach CN¥74.3B ($11.97B USD) in 2014. While Xiaomi is making money hand-over-fist when it comes to revenue, one problem spot is profit. While profits are also reportedly rising fast, they're far smaller than the gawdy numbers enjoyed by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KRX:005930) (KRX:005935) and Apple, Inc. (AAPL).
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