Smartphone and electronics giant Xiaomi Hong Kong has opened its second flagship store, in Causeway Bay’s Hang Lung Centre.
Covering more than 3000 sqft (280 sqm), the eighth-floor store offers such Xiaomi products as smartphones, Wi-Fi routers, smart home appliances and lifestyle items including suitcases, pillows and towels. Its first Mi Home retail store in Hong Kong opened in 2015, on Nathan Road in Mong Kok.
“This second Mi Home store demonstrates the importance of the Hong Kong market,” says Xiaomi senior VP Wang Xiang, who also heads up the company’s international team. Xiaomi is hoping to bring in RMB10 billion (US$1.46 billion) from 1000 stores over the next three years.
“Xiaomi will continue to expand in Hong Kong. We are very confident of the market potential here,” says Wang, who took over the international role from Hugo Barra after he left to join Facebook in January.
Founded by chief executive Lei Jun, the Beijing giant started out as a smartphone maker that pioneered an online-only sales model. It became the best-selling smartphone brand in 2014, since being toppled from the top spot by two other Chinese brands, Oppo and Vivo, which rely more on offline distribution networks to generate sales.
Xiaomi opened its first giant retail store in Beijing in September 2015 and has since expanded to India, Singapore and the Philippines. It already has 100 stores in China.
Xiaomi has branched out into selling other “Mi”-branded smart appliances such as robotic vacuum cleaners, smart air purifiers, smart lamps and even water purifiers.
To coincide with its Hong Kong opening, Xiaomi announced the launch of its Mi6 flagship smartphone, the 6.44-inch Mi Max 2 and its MiJia 360deg. panoramic camera in the Hong Kong market for the first time, all of which are available in the Causeway Bay store.
