Five years after launching, Xiaomi is posting the kind of revenue numbers that would make many public companies jealous.
Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, expects revenue to top 100 billion yuan (or $16 billion) for 2015, according to comments from CEO Lei Jun at an event in Beijing on Thursday, as reported by multiple publications.
A rep for Xiaomi did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
That would represent at least 30% revenue growth from the previous year, when Xiaomi sales hit 74.3 billion yuan (or about $12 billion).
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Post by Bin Lin.
At that level, Xiaomi's revenue will still be far short of competitors like Apple, which generated $182 billion in revenue for the 2014 fiscal year. Profits are likely lagging too, as the company reportedly made just $56 million in net profit in 2013.
Xiaomi gained traction with gadgets that invited comparisons to Apple products, but often at a far more affordable price. One researcher Xiaomi had passed Samsung to become China's top smartphone seller. It now has aspirations to tiptoe into the U.S. market.