Xiaomi revenue doubled to US $12 billion in 2014, says CEO

Xiaomi Technology, the fast-growing Chinese tech firm, booked 74.3 billion yuan ($11.97 billion) in pre-tax sales in 2014, up 135 per cent from 2013, the firm's chief executive Lei Jun said on his official microblog account on Sunday.

The figures help shine light on the rapid growth of Xiaomi which has risen to become the world's No.3 smartphone maker and is challenging Apple and Samsung Electronics as well as domestic rivals such as Huawei Technology.

The privately-held Chinese company sold a total of just over 61 million phones in 2014, up 227 per cent from a year earlier, Lei added in a post on his Sina Weibo microblog account.

The post did not give a related profit figure, although a filing in December showed that the firm was grappling with razor thin margins as it rapidly expands. A part of the business made around 347.5 million yuan net profit in 2014 on revenue of 26.6 billion yuan and an operating margin of just 1.8 per cent.

Lei added that growth in China's smartphone market would ease in 2015 and that the firm would look to focus on innovating new products and pushing into more overseas markets.

Lei, who is both chairman and chief executive, claims 77.8 per cent ownership of the company he co-founded in 2010, while unnamed shareholders split the remainder, according to a recent filing.

Last week Xiaomi raised US $1.1 billion in a round of funding that valued the firm at US $45 billion, from investors including All-Stars Investment, DST Global, Hopu Investment Management, and Yunfeng Capital, as well as Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

(Reuters)