小米在印度打開局面

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, said that its revenues in India had exceeded $1bn last year as it looks abroad for growth amid continuing competitive pressures at home.

中國智能手機制造商小米(Xiaomi)表示，該公司去年在印度的營收已超過10億美元。國內持續不斷的競爭壓力正促使小米尋求在境外實現增長。

Chinese-owned technology companies have so far led the smartphone market in India. The subcontinent is seen as the next big untapped market for mobile makers at a time when growth has begun to flag elsewhere.

到目前爲止，中資高科技企業引領着印度的智能手機市場。在其他地區增長已開始萎縮之際，這塊次大陸被視爲移動設備製造商下一個巨大的未開發市場。

Sales of Xiaomi’s smartphones in the country more than doubled from 3m to about 6.5m, Shou Zi Chew, its chief financial officer, told the Financial Times in an interview.

小米首席財務官周受資(Shou Zi Chew)在接受採訪時告訴英國《金融時報》，小米智能手機在印度的銷量從300萬部增長至650萬部左右，增加了一倍以上。

“What this [$1bn] milestone shows is we have successfully stepped out of China into the global arena,” he said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Xiaomi is exhibiting for the first time.

他在拉斯維加斯消費電子展(CES)上表示：“這一（10億美元的）里程碑證明，我們已成功走出中國，登上全球舞臺。”今年，小米首次在該展會參展。

“2016 was a watershed year for us as we truly became an international company.”

“對我們來說，2016年是個分水嶺，我們真正成爲一家跨國公司。”

Xiaomi is among the top three smartphone companies by sales in India, alongside Huawei and Lenovo’s Motorola.

小米和華爲(Huawei)及聯想(Lenovo)旗下的摩托羅拉(Motorola)，是印度銷量前三的智能手機公司。

To achieve that in just a couple of years, Xiaomi “replicated our Chinese strategy” of focusing on online sales and an ecosystem of companion products, championed by a passionate community of what it calls “Mi fans” instead of traditional advertising, Mr Chew said.

周受資表示，爲了在僅僅兩年時間內實現這一目標，小米“複製了我們在中國的戰略”，聚焦於在線銷售和配套產品生態系統，並由被小米稱爲“米粉”的熱心羣體（而不是傳統的廣告營銷）宣傳。

However, after a period of breakneck growth leading up to 2015, Xiaomi has struggled to maintain momentum in China in the past two years, losing its position at the top of the world’s largest mobile market to local rivals such as Oppo and Vivo.

不過，在經歷了截至2015年的爆炸性增長期之後，過去兩年小米難以維持在中國的增長勢頭，在全球最大移動市場中國讓OPPO和vivo等國內競爭對手奪走了桂冠。

Mr Chew would not say whether Xiaomi’s global sales grew last year, after it missed its revenue targets in 2015.

周受資不願透露去年小米在全球的銷量是否增加。此前在2015年，小米未能實現其營收目標。

“The company has grown in a way we wanted it to grow . . . where we want it to grow,” he said. Instead of prioritising growth or market share gains at any cost, Xiaomi has focused on increasing efficiencies in its online sales and distribution and developing its “ecosystem” of companion Mi products.

他說：“小米在以我們希望的方式……在我們希望增長的地區……增長。”小米並未不計代價地把增長或搶佔市場份額擺在首位，而是把注意力放在提高其在線銷售和分銷的效率、發展小米配套產品的“生態系統”上。

These range from internet-connected air purifiers and rice cookers to its wildly popular Mi Band fitness tracker, which has sold more than 23m units.

這些產品包括聯網的空氣淨化器、電飯煲，以及人氣爆棚、已銷售逾2300萬部的小米手環(Mi-Band)健身跟蹤設備。

Xiaomi focuses on smartphones, TV sets, wireless routers and laptops, while it has invested in or supported 77 start-ups which together have sold more than 50m connected devices that tie into its central Mi Home app. A handful of these Mi ecosystem companies have exceeded Rmb1bn in sales, he said.

周受資表示，小米聚焦於智能手機、電視機、無線路由器和筆記本電腦。同時，該公司已對77家初創企業投入資金或予以支持。把這些都加起來，被捆綁至小米智能家庭(Mi Home)核心應用的可聯網設備銷量已超過5000萬部。他說，有幾家此類小米生態系統企業的銷售額已超過10億元人民幣。

Many of those companion devices are on show at CES, where Xiaomi unveiled an ultra-thin TV set.

許多此類配套設備在拉斯維加斯消費電子展上亮相。小米在展會上發佈了一款超薄電視機。

After its early success in India, Mr Chew said that Xiaomi was now increasingly confident that it could take its operating model, which he likened to a blend of Japanese homewares brand Muji and US discount retailer Costco for its combination of affordable quality and ultra efficiency, to other countries, including “the key big emerging market countries, Europe and the US”.

周受資表示，在印度取得初步成功之後，對於把這種運作模式推廣至包括“重要新興市場大國、歐洲和美國”在內的各國，小米如今越來越有信心。他表示，這種運作模式把買得起的品質和超高效率相結合，很像日本家居品牌無印良品(MUJI)和美國折扣零售商好市多(Costco)的混合體。

“The US is an important market for us,” he said. “We want to enter in the right way.”

他說：“對我們來說，美國是個重要市場。我們希望以正確方式進入美國市場。”

So far, Chinese handset makers have largely struggled to gain meaningful distribution and sales in the US, where Apple and Samsung dominate.

到目前爲止，在蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)佔統治地位的美國，中國手機制造商在很大程度上很難開闢有意義的分銷和銷售格局。

Mr Chew joined Xiaomi in mid-2015 from Yuri Milner’s DST Global, a significant investor in the seven-year-old Chinese company.

周受資是在2015年中從尤里•米爾納(Yuri Milner)的DST全球(DST Global)跳槽到小米的。DST全球是成立七年的小米公司的一個主要投資方。

Xiaomi raised $1.1bn at a valuation of $45bn in late 2014, making it one of the world’s most valuable private tech companies.

2014年底，小米以450億美元的估值籌得11億美元，成爲全球最有價值的私人持股高科技企業之一。

At the end of 2015, as sales began to wane in China, Xiaomi determined that “blind growth is dangerous”, he said. “We will always pursue the highest quality, the most cost efficient channels and return the cost savings to consumers. That is the way we have chosen to grow in 2016.”

周受資表示，2015年底，隨着在中國的銷售開始萎縮，小米認定“盲目增長十分危險”。“我們將始終追求最高品質和成本效率最高的渠道，將節省下來的成本返還消費者。我們選擇用這種辦法在2016年取得增長。”

Despite not raising new capital for more than two years, Mr Chew said “we don’t need to” raise more funds. “There is no reason to believe we are not profitable,” he said.

儘管小米已有兩年多沒有籌集新資金，但周受資表示“我們不需要”再籌集更多資金。他說：“沒有理由認爲我們不在盈利。”