Two weeks back, we wrote that Xiaomi, the China made smartphone which has been actively expanding in Southeast Asia, will hit the shores of the Philippines in the coming weeks. Unlike the conventional way of debuting through its site, usually through a flash sales to hype up for publicity, it has decided to sell its phone through e-commerce site Lazada.
It turns out that the sales was made available to Philippines consumers earlier today on the Lazada site. Similar with all Xiaomi’s debut in all countries, the Mi3 device was sold out within the hour on the Lazada site.
Lazada claims to be one of the highest trafficked online shopping site in the markets it is currently available. It has accumulated 79 million page visits in the first quarter of 2014 alone. It recently launched its e commerce site in Singapore.
Philippines is Xiaomi’s third international market after Singapore and Malaysia.
Xiaomi (or as some people call it, the “Chinese Apple”) is on the talk everywhere right now. After their victory over Apple in terms of sales in China and signing Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s global vice president, to the team, now Xiaomi is no longer a local brand. Established in 2010 by eight men, mostly engineers, Xiaomi is now the third smartphone manufacturer in China, behind Samsung and Lenovo. In less than four years, it has already overtaken Apple. It sold 18.7 million handsets in 2013, up 160 percent from 2012.
And its popularity is undeniable, Xiaomi’s Redmi sold out within 8 minutes in Singapore, the Mi3 sold out within 3 minutes in Taiwan, and more recently, sold out in 17 minutes in Malaysia. It seems like everyone wants to get a hold of a Xiaomi smartphone. In fact, Xiaomi’sMi3 and Hongmi made it into the February 2014 list of the world’s ten best-selling smartphones, which gives them something to shout about.
