Hugo Barra – The Genius behind Xiaomi Success

While Apple and Samsung are fighting to get the Smartphone market eagerly, a new giant bursts out from the far East. It fast expansion surprises all the experts, because in some places it is known as the “Low Cost IPhone”, besides that, they have revolutionary ideas such as instant selling through its mobile message platform. The key number is USD $45 million, which represents its last value on the Stock Exchange (more than Twitter or LinkedIn, for example).

The genius behind this? Hugo Barra, former Google Vice-President, and Android CEO is the guy who get this company at the same level of other worldwide Smartphone Labels.

MIUI, the first clear target.

Xiaomi was founded on April 6^th, 2010 by eight business partners, among them was is current CEO, Lei Jun.  At the very beginning, the company was not focus on designing electronic devices, but the development of a ROM, MIUI. Xiaomi ROM, although it was basically based on Android, it has been compared with iOS.

Later in July, Xiaomi announced that MIUI had more than 200 active users around the world, something which can be considered good, but, what happened with the hardware? Things were really contrasted on this point because it first devices were not as innovative as the software. Maybe the company did not set the same endeavor (at first) than software development.

In 2011, the company launched Xiaomi MI-One. this device became the first Xiaomi Smartphone which counted with one of the highest specifications for the moment, comparing with a very competitive price. The phone was released on the market (Asian market) without having anything to envy the top brands during that moment like Samsung Galaxy S2.

Hugo Barra Arrival.

After the first smartphone was launched, the company sold in 2012 7.2 million of gadgets, and a year later set on the market 160% more units with a total amount of 18.7 million of smartphones sold. During the first trimester of 2014 Xiaomi sold more than 2012 as a whole, with Mi2s and Mi-2SA, and Hongmi-RedRice, and Xiaomi Mi-3 on the market.

An exaggerated growth without a doubt in a very competitive market. In 2013 the company reached that Xiaomi Mi2S was the best-selling smartphone in China, competing directly with Galaxy S4, and iPhone 5. They could sell 200.000 phones in only 45 seconds. All these achievements have Hugo Barra as the main mentor. Barra’s duties were from the first moment giving Xiaomi the push the company needed to get in the international markets.

In 2014 Mi4 arrived to the stores and the selling is still growing, but the point here is that the internationalization was only possible in Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and India. This last country was the first market outside China, with the mid-range phone Mi 4i, a phone that sold more than 40.000 units in only 15 seconds.

Hugo Barra farewell.

After his last appearance barely a month ago, in which Hugo Barra showed the world as a proud propulsion engine for the internalization of the Chinese company Xiaomi, no one could have expected he would say goodbye so suddenly to the company in which he has help forming since 2013.

Let’s see what would happen to the company in near future.