Xiaomi in no rush for international expansion

BEIJING - Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi is in no rush to expand internationally and will expand into the overseas markets gradually, the company's CEO said Monday.

"It takes time and resources to learn about and enter a new market due to different cultural, legal and business environments, and hasty expansion will cause into many problems," Xiaomi's board chairman and CEO Lei Jun said at the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of China's national legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC).

The tech firm started overseas expansion three years ago and is now selling products in over 20 countries and regions worldwide.

It took Xiaomi two years to become one of the top five smartphone brands in India, its largest overseas market, which brought in sales of about $1 billion in 2016.

"India sets a good example whose experience can be shared in expanding into other countries, and Xiaomi will start from neighboring markets and then go for western ones," Lei said.

Lei, who is also a deputy to the NPC, believes that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative offers good opportunities for Chinese tech firms to expand overseas by helping other countries develop IT infrastructure.

To make Chinese tech firms' overseas expansion easier, Lei suggested that Chinese authorities could establish specific offices in foreign countries to offer legal, cultural and commercial consulting services and help bridge cooperation with foreign markets.

"In five to ten years, China's smartphone brands will earn global popularity with products featuring impressive design, quality, service and reasonable price," Lei added.