back to article Xiaomi the money? OK, here's a one beeeeellion dollar loss ahead of IPO

Chinese tech darling Xiaomi made a loss of $1.2bn (¥7.7bn) on turnover of $5.4bn (¥34.4bn) in the first quarter of 2018. The firm disclosed the figures in a regulatory filing (Chinese, PDF) ahead of a share flotation. The IPO could raise $10bn and Xiaomi wants to use it to expand into the West. The bulk of Xiaomi's income is …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They also sell rice cookers in their shops, which I believe isn't something they can be accused of having copied on Apple.

    1. ThomH

      Put water in a pan, put rice in the pan, put the pan on top of any of: an Apple III, a G4 Cube, a G5 PowerMac.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        put rice in the pan, put the pan on top of any of: an Apple

        Why would you cook rice top of an Apple? When you could've... just eaten the Apple. /coat

  2. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Using a Redmi 4A device - and is impressed with it.

    Usually a phone will slow down after 6 months' heavy use and need a factory reset, but this phone just chugs on and on.

    Very impressed.

    Looks like Huawei and Xiaomi's going to cause big grief to Sagsmug in the long run.

    1. J27

      Yeah...

      A phone shouldn't slow down unless you fill up the storage (so it can't cache) or you install a bunch of 3rd party apps that run all the time (or perhaps if you buy a brand that ships with a bunch of shady apps pre-installed).

      I do agree with you that Xiaomi's phones are very good, surprisingly so based on the price. I'm not really surprised they're losing money.

  3. johnaaronrose

    Can anybody explain how this company is worth billions? It's making huge losses. Quoting Wikipedia:

    "According to Xiaomi's Hugo Barra in 2014, the company sees hardware sales as a means of delivering software and services in the long term, "We are an Internet and a software company much more than a hardware company."[31] However, financial data available at the time indicated that this is either wishful thinking or plans for the far future: 94% of the company's revenue came from mobile phone sales, an even higher proportion than Apple.".

    So if it raises billions from its IPO, it will have the opportunity to sell phones, possibly at a loss, in an overcrowded market in the West. How will it make money from software and services?

    1. eldakka

      > Can anybody explain how this company is worth billions? It's making huge losses.

      The same way that Amazon was worth billions before it ever began turning a profit - something it has been doing for the last 3-4 years now.

      Share trading is usually based on the future - what people think it will become, it's potential. Not what it is now. So it is worth billions on the stock market because:

      1) it has billions in revenue (so it has actual products shipping and being purchased in large quantities, it's not a Theranos or Juicero);

      2) it is liquid;

      3) it has assets;

      4) speculation on where it may end up - based on the above, share buyers (mostly the big institutional investors who go long on the share market) think it has a future, so buy shares in it, creating competition for a limited resource - the shares - pushing up the share price. And they are willing to pay as much for the shares as they speculate they will be worth - either in accumulated dividend payments or future share price - enough to justify what they are paying for them now.

      1. johnaaronrose

        Amazon & Xiaomi are totally different businesses. Amazon is a retail business; Xiaomi appears to be a mobile phone seller. I don't understand what is meant by liquid: does it mean that t can move into other services e.g. services? What are Xiaomi's assets? Speculation is exactly what it says.

        According to Wikipedia: Many so-called "Xiaomi product" listed in the page are not actually released by Xiaomi, instead they are merely third party products sold on Xiaomi's online shop with the "Mijia" brand, or that those products are released by other companies that have received Xiaomi investment.

        Is that going to be Xiaomi's profit maker? If so, there are other players already selling these products. So, the assumption would appear to be that Xiaomi will tie their existing & future phone customers into buying Xaomi badged products. A risky assumption.

  4. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Xiaomi are starting to get a great reputation in the UK. If you frequent such sites as Hot UK deals then you'll have seen the electronics they purvey posted as hot deals with subsequent testimonials of just how good quality their kit is. As it happens I have a pair of Bluetooth scales and a robot vacuum manufacturerd by Xiaomi and I am highly impressed with the high quality of both for the relatively low cost. Even the packaging is premium. They were both made for the Chinese market so the vacuum did shout at me in Chinese to begin with but that was easily resolved in settings. I look forward to their official arrival in the UK as I do think they will shake things up for the better if they keep up their current standard.

    1. ridley

      My Xiaomi mi 5 is a very nice phone, that just happens to be quite inexpensive.

      Very impressed with the quality.

  5. Joe Harrison

    They're goo

    I have a phone and various other gadgets from them and am very impressed. They make all sorts of odd things for example smart plant pots which connect to your smart home and tell you how your shrub is doing and whether it needs anything. The nicest thing I've had from them is their "Xiaomi Air" i7 laptop which cost me half of what I would have paid for an equivalent model from suppliers in UK.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not surprised at the loss.

    They have been pissing away their time with every sort of Xiaomi branded product you can think of (short of a Princess Diana Memorial colonic irrigation kit, but I bet it is on the way).

    Meantime, their core phone business has really been suffering from a lack of technical and software support; which has been REALLY pissing off us long term loyal customers.

    Locking down the OS, so we cannot play with custom ROMS, telling us we can ASK nicely to have then unlocked, then finding it only works if you are a fluent reader of FUCKING CHINESE is not helping.

    I hope this is a wake-up call that gets them back on track, I REALLY do not want a Xiaomi umbrella or yoyo.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not surprised at the loss.

      Meantime, their core phone business has really been suffering from a lack of technical and software support...Locking down the OS, so we cannot play with custom ROMS...

      Compare to other brands like Huawei who recently stopped providing unlock bootloader (fewer than 60 days left to unlock existing phone), Xiaomi not only updates their MIUI OS with official rom for download and backup, but also provides a way to unlock the bootloader aka you can play with custom roms... ok it might be easier to unlock an Oneplus but that's aside the point.

      Along with an official and unofficial MIUI community forum if you want to find more option for rooting outside from xda-developers, I'm not sure what else you want more in terms of technical or software support at such a low price.

      Also their business is suffering mainly because they are selling their phones at a low price, which require a high number of buyers buying their device. Unfortunately, they didn't expect a freeze in smartphone demand on 2017 after everyone already has one isn't getting a new one. That's why they chose to invest in other stuff like a rice cooker in hoping to continue growth by expanding to other markets.

    2. james 68

      Re: Not surprised at the loss.

      Really? Because everything you need is right there on the website in English AND it's automatic, both for unlocking the OS and the bootloader.

      http://en.miui.com/thread-246705-1-1.html

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Not surprised at the loss.

        Click on it and you get a nice page in English, click on THAT, and you get a log in page in Chinese.

        And Xiaomi lost focus in 2015, not in 2017.

        They do makes some great non-core products, but they also slap their name on an awful lot of crap, low value rubbish, and that devalues the brand.

  7. clipper

    Mobiles

    Got a Xiaomi Mi A-1 - best phone I've had. Great price at GBP150 about 6 months ago. Great build quality. Simple & fast Android One. Gets security updates every month, already updated to Oreo, P to come. I'll buy the updated model in about a year, then another after another 2 years. And still be ahead!

    Also have Xiaomi pens, WiFi repeaters, earphones, precision screw driver set (joint production with top class German toolmaker Wiha - a Red Dot product winner. And currently a bargain GBP15), night sensor lights, webcam, power banks, etc all of which are extremely well designed & manufactured - and are terrific value for money.

    Only current problem, is waiting for the items, from the Chinese suppliers like BangGood or Gearbest, but at these prices and free delivery why argue? Roll on their European invasion.

    The present big European fat cats should be very afraid.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity

    "Xiaomi made a loss of $1.2bn on turnover of $5.4bn in the first quarter of 2018."

    Invest in what? A company losing money on every sale. Genius.

    #DotComBubbleTwattery

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