INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Xiaomi entered the Indian market in 2015
Chinese tech company
Xiaomi has come to dominate India's massive low-cost smartphone market in a few short years
The TheIndianSubcontinent's Krutika Pathi talks to tech experts to understand just how that happened.Fifteen minutes - that's how long it
took for Xiaomi's latest smartphone, Redmi Note 8, to sell out once it went on a "flash sale" online on Monday.But this isn't unusual among
the company's products, and is a key part of its India strategy."You've got to register online first and then keep an eye out for these
flash sales - then you pounce," Mala Bhargava, a technology journalist, told the TheIndianSubcontinent.While Xiaomi's mobiles are also
available offline at stores, most new models are first sold online, which accounts for more than half of their sales
"The online community the brand has amassed is astonishing," Jayanth Kolla, partner at telecom research firm Convergence Catalyst, said
When Xiaomi entered the Indian market in 2015, Mr Kolla explained, it did not invest in brick and mortar stores
Instead, they focused on selling their products online
This kept distribution costs low and that made the phones cheaper
"Their heavy online presence also helped them gain a cult-like following in India, allowing Xiaomi to cement itself as a serious player in
the country's fickle smartphone market," he added.Chinese companies now control more than half of India's burgeoning smartphone market -
And Xiaomi, once referred to as the brand behind "the poor man's iPhone", is leading the pack - it owns 28% of the Indian market
That's a steep rise for a company that had just 3% of the market in 2016
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The company is the number one smartphone brand in India
"It
started by putting out phones that were iPhone lookalikes," Ms Bhargava said
"Their first crop of phones was constantly compared to the Apple product and the company even got criticised for it."But it was not just
that Xiaomi's phones looked like iPhones
They were also packed with features and hardware that made Indians feel that they were getting more bang for their buck.Its flagship Redmi
range of phones, for instance, include a 64-megapixel camera but are affordable, starting at 9,999 rupees ($141) and going up to 17,999
Indian consumers quickly gravitated towards the phones - which gleamed like iPhones but at one-third the price."Everyone wants an iPhone,
but will settle for a lookalike until they can afford the real thing," Mr Kolla said, adding that his firm's research has found that Indian
consumers often upgrade to a "premium smartphone", most likely an Apple or Samsung mobile, as soon as their disposable income rises."The way
they approached their pricing helps explain their popularity in India - consumers were getting better features than before but at
rock-bottom prices," Mr Kolla said.Another reason for Xiaomi's rise, as well as that of other Chinese smartphone makers, was the slow
collapse of India's home-grown mobile brands due to the lack of 4G capability."There was a time when you had Indian brands like Micromax
leading the market," Neil Shah, a technology analyst at Counterpoint Research, said
"But everything changed around 2016 and 2017 when 4G was introduced in India."By the time 4G arrived in India, Chinese companies had already
managed to successfully outfit cheap phones with 4G tech, and were selling them back home
"This made it much easier for them to transition their mobiles from 3G to 4G overnight in India
It's what ultimately killed the Indian brands," Mr Shah said.Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia captionWATCH: Xiaomi's
double-folding smartphoneBut competition for the Indian market remains fierce and no one company has dominated it for too long.Xiaomi's
share of the market has not grown from 28% since last year, signalling a plateau
Korean tech giant Samsung is also close behind at 25%; and newer Chinese brands like Realme are also becoming more popular among Indian
users.This could explain why Xiaomi dipped its toes in the premium smartphone market earlier this year, with a new range of phones called
the K-20 series.Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Its flagship Redmi phones are hugely popular in India
"A few years ago, the premium market was about three to four percent of the Indian smartphone market
This has now grown," Xiaomi's India director, Manu Jain, said in an interview with the Hindu newspaper in July.He added that the company had
set its sights beyond the affordable smartphone market.But Xiaomi's prices, which range from 20,000 to 30,000 rupees ($282 to $423), didn't
put it in the league of the iPhone or Galaxy smartphones, which sell for considerably more."It's neither here nor there," Mr Shah
said.According to Mr Kolla, the Chinese company needs to "keep pushing its limits" if it wants to sit alongside Apple and Samsung."If they
don't innovate and bring new products, they'll be stuck selling cheaper phones for a while."
