Xiaomi history starts in 2010, when the company began with software rather than hardware: it launched its MIUI firmware first and its first phone, the Mi 1, roughly a year later, before growing into a global maker of phones, smart devices and electric cars.
This independent explainer sets out the main milestones using company statements, filings and press coverage. For the wider industry context, see the guide to chinese tech brands. This site is not affiliated with Xiaomi.
Founding and a software-first start
Xiaomi says on its global About page that Xiaomi Corporation was founded on April 6, 2010. The company’s first product was not a handset. According to Wikipedia’s account, on 16 August 2010 Xiaomi launched its first Android-based firmware MIUI, an operating system layer that sat on top of Android.
That order of events explains why the company’s later strategy leaned so heavily on software and services. A firmware project gave Xiaomi a user base to talk to before it had hardware to sell, and the MIUI name stayed in use for years afterwards. Xiaomi’s own site now describes a unified operating system called Xiaomi HyperOS, and Wikipedia notes that MIUI is now Xiaomi HyperOS.
The first phone and the move into hardware
The same Wikipedia entry records that in August 2011 the company launched its first phone, the Xiaomi Mi 1, which shipped with MIUI firmware on an Android installation. The pairing set the template for the brand: custom software on a phone sold directly by the maker.
Xiaomi’s stated mission today reflects that positioning. The company says it aims to build amazing products with honest prices so that people everywhere can enjoy innovative technology. Price is written into that mission. For another chapter of Chinese phone making, see the history of shanzhai phones.
What the 2018 listing documents revealed
Xiaomi went public on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018, under the stock code 1810.HK, according to the company’s About page. The first filing, covered by TechCrunch in May of that year, gave an unusually detailed picture of the business.
TechCrunch reported that Xiaomi said in its filing that it had over 190 million people using its MIUI version of Android, and that it had sold over 100 million connected devices such as smartwatches, fitness bands and smart scales. The outlet put 2017 sales at 114.6 billion RMB, up from 68.4 billion RMB in 2016, with smartphones accounting for 70 percent of sales.
| Figure reported at the 2018 filing | Value |
|---|---|
| 2017 sales | 114.6 billion RMB |
| 2016 sales | 68.4 billion RMB |
| Share of 2017 sales from smartphones | 70 percent |
| Share of 2017 sales from China | 72 percent |
These figures come from TechCrunch’s report on the filing.
The same TechCrunch report noted that China represented 72 percent of 2017 sales, while its share had been 94 percent for 2015, then 87 percent for 2016, so the company was becoming less dependent on its home market. At that point IDC ranked Xiaomi fourth by global smartphone shipments.
Thin hardware margins and a services model
A distinctive point in the same coverage is how the company makes money. TechCrunch wrote that Xiaomi sells phones and smart devices at very thin margins and relies on services and efficient use of components to earn profit. It added that the company had capped its maximum net profit for hardware at five percent, a strategy chief executive Lei Jun calls a triathlon.
This framing matters for readers comparing brands. A maker that treats hardware as a low-margin entry point to software and services behaves differently from one that depends on handset margins. Operating-system strategy is a related theme in other Chinese firms, such as harmonyos from Huawei, which is covered separately.
Where the company stands today
By its 2024 annual report, Xiaomi described a two-brand phone business. The report says the company continued to execute its dual-brand strategy, with Xiaomi and Redmi lines. It reported smartphone revenue of RMB191.8 billion, global shipments of 168.5 million units, and, according to Canalys, a No. 3 global ranking with a 13.8% market share, as stated in Xiaomi’s 2024 annual report. Total revenue that year was RMB365.9 billion.
Yicai Global, summarising the results, wrote that Canalys data showed Xiaomi remained among the top three global smartphone vendors by shipments for the 18th consecutive year in 2024.
The same annual report records a new category. In March 2024 the company officially launched its first smart EV product, the Xiaomi SU7 series, and deliveries of that series reached 136,854 vehicles in 2024. The company also reported research and development spending of RMB24.1 billion for the year. Xiaomi now describes itself as a company with smartphones, EV and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core, and says on its About page that it operates in 100+ markets worldwide.
Beyond phones: connected devices
The annual report shows how large the connected-device side has become. Xiaomi reported that its global monthly active users reached a new high of 702.3 million, and that the number of globally connected smart devices, excluding smartphones, tablets and laptops, surpassed 904.6 million, in its 2024 annual report. This is the same idea that appeared in the listing filing, where connected devices such as watches and bands were already counted separately from handsets.
Because these figures are company-reported, they describe how Xiaomi measures its own ecosystem and are not an independent audit of the market. They are most useful as a year-to-year comparison within Xiaomi’s own reporting, and as a sign of how far the firm has moved from a single firmware project.
What the numbers do and do not show
Company-reported milestones are a useful backbone for a history, but they leave gaps. Filings and annual reports describe what Xiaomi chose to measure, and outside analysts such as IDC and Canalys use their own methods for shipment rankings. That is why the two rankings quoted above, a fourth place at the time of the listing and a third place in the annual report, sit in different sources and different periods rather than forming one continuous series.
It also means that statements about reasons, such as why a particular pricing approach worked, are interpretation. The sourced facts here are limited to dates, product launches, reported totals and rankings, which can be checked against the pages linked in each section.
Reading the timeline
Put together, the documented milestones form a clear arc. A software project came first in 2010, a phone sold with that software followed in 2011, a Hong Kong listing came in 2018 with a large connected-device base, and by 2024 the company combined phones, connected devices and cars. Each step added hardware categories while keeping the software layer and the focus on pricing that the company’s mission statement describes.
Readers who want exact current figures should consult Xiaomi’s investor materials, since the numbers above are tied to the dates and reports named in each source.
Frequently asked questions
When was Xiaomi founded?
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Xiaomi says it was founded on April 6, 2010.
What was Xiaomi’s first product?
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According to Wikipedia, the first product was the MIUI firmware, launched on 16 August 2010, and the first phone, the Mi 1, followed in August 2011.
When did Xiaomi go public?
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Xiaomi says it went public on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018, under the stock code 1810.HK.
How large is Xiaomi’s smartphone business?
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The 2024 annual report gives global smartphone shipments of 168.5 million units and, per Canalys, a 13.8% market share, ranking third.
