Xiaomi's CEO named China's businessman of the year

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, speaks at a launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Lei Jun, CEO and founder of world's third-largest Chinese phone maker Xiaomi, has been named the China's businessman of the year 2014 by Fortune China on Monday.

This is the 13th consecutive year that the magazine has named businessman of the year. The former winners include Alibaba's Jack Ma in 2005 and JD.com's Liu Qiangdong in 2012.

Xiaomi recorded sales volume of 75-80 billion yuan in 2014, a huge jump from 33 billion in 2013 and 12.6 billion yuan in 2012, according to the magazine.

The company sold 61.12 million smartphones in 2014, up 227 percent year on year, Xinhua reported on Jan 4, citing Lei Jun at a launch event of Redmi2, Xiaomi's latest phone model, on the same day.

Lei Jun said in an interview to Fortune China that his goal is to turn Xiaomi into a world-class company within five to 10 years.

He also expressed the same wish at the World Internet Conference held on Nov 19 to 21 in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province, saying that if the company followed the current model, it would have a chance to become world's largest smartphone company in five to 10 years.

Xiaomi Technology was founded in April 2010 by Lei Jun and his friends in Zhongguancun, Beijing's technology hub. Its first smartphone debuted on Aug 16, 2011.