The rebellion of China’s Xiaomi, once mocked as a “Samsung knockoff,” is no joke. Xiaomi has revealed its ambition to surpass Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, and join the “200 million club” in annual global shipments. The company plans to expand its success in emerging markets—achieved through localization strategies—worldwide.
According to Chinese media outlets like Hexun on the 4th, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi, stated at the “2025 Investor Day” event on the 3rd (local time), “We will strengthen localization and steadily grow to catch up with Samsung. Joining the global smartphone shipment 200 million club is our next goal.”
President Lu pointed to emerging markets as an example. “We’ve overtaken Samsung in Nigeria and perfectly replicated Samsung’s success model in East and West Africa,” he emphasized.
Xiaomi, which was once busy copying Samsung and Apple, has undergone a dramatic transformation. According to global market research firm Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi shipped 42 million smartphones in Q1 this year, capturing 14% of the global market share. The gap with Samsung Electronics (61 million units, 20%) has narrowed to just 6 percentage points.
President Lu expressed confidence in further closing the gap with Samsung, crediting Xiaomi’s localization strategy. A prime example is India. Xiaomi entered the Indian market in 2014 through a partnership with local e-commerce giant Flipkart. It has since established six local manufacturing bases and expanded its workforce to over 1,500 employees. Adapting to India’s offline-centric market, Xiaomi expanded its retail presence and built more than 750 service centers. Thanks to this aggressive localization strategy, Xiaomi overtook Samsung to become India’s top smartphone brand in 2018.
The company is also making strides in Africa and Japan. According to Canalys, Xiaomi’s market share in Africa reached 11% in Q1 last year, with shipments surging 115% year-over-year to 1.9 million units. In Japan, where it entered the market in December 2019, Xiaomi surpassed Samsung within just five years. Citing Canalys data, Xiaomi Japan reported a 6% market share in Q2 last year, while Samsung ranked fourth with just 5%.
