Online shoppers in the U.S. will be able to order more products from China’s Xiaomi Inc. The Beijing-based company will sell Mi Box, a set-top television box product, online in the United States. Xiaomi also strengthened its partnership with Google Inc. as the technology giant said it has chosen Xiaomi as a partner to develop virtual reality gear.
Developed on Google TV 6.0, the latest Internet TV operating system from Google, the U.S. version of Mi-Box will allow users to access more than 1,000 apps, including video apps like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and video games from Google Play, according to Xiaomi.
Mi Box supports voice control and motion sensing, Xiaomi says. After pushing the voice button on the remote, users can speak to control the devices, including changing apps or searching for video or pages. Consumers can also use the remote as a joystick in games that in which the player moves figures in the game with his own movements.
“This is a milestone for Xiaomi and we are glad to work closely with Google,” says Hugo Barra, a previous Google executive who is now Xiaomi’s vice president of global. “I am confident that U.S. consumers will enjoy the Ultra High-Definition (4K) videos from Mi Box.”
Since Xiaomi launched its first-generation Mi Box in 2012, the company has sold about 10 million Mi Box products in China, the company says.
Xiaomi didn’t released when and at what price it will sell the product in the U.S., however Xiaomi’s online store in China is offering the Chinese-version Mi Box at $60.
Selling products at affordable prices and engaging with online shoppers helped Xiaomi make a name for itself as a major smartphone maker, first in China and more recently elsewhere in Asia. Xiaomi was the No. 5 of smartphone brand in the world in terms of shipments in 2015, according to research firm IDC.
Xiaomi, which primarily sells its smartphones online in China, is No.3 in the Internet Retailer 2016 China 500 and its web sales increased 50% to $17.8 billion in 2015, according to Top500guide.com. The company last year reported about 70% of sales came from online.
However, the Xiaomi’s smartphone revenue growth slowed recently as the smartphone market in China has become saturated and many Chinese players mimic Xiaomi’s marketing tactics. Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments grew 15% to 70 million units in 2015, compared with a 227% growth rate in 2014, according to Xiaomi.
To boost its growth rate, Xiaomi is expanding its product lines and investing in other hardware companies. For example, Xiaomi-backed Chinese startup Ninebot Inc. acquired U.S.-based electric scooter company Segway Inc. in 2015. Originally a smartphone maker, Xiaomi now offers a variety of consumer electronics, including tablets, web-connected TVs, digital cameras, air purifiers and wearable fitness bands.
Xiaomi, which entered the U.S. market in 2015, has to this point sold only phone accessories like portable battery chargers and earphones to U.S. consumers on its e-commerce site, mi.com, and through Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace.
For more Chinese e-commerce data, please click here for the new-released Internet Retailer 2016 China 500.
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