Xiaomi is a very popular brand/manufacturer in China. Mi makes smartphones, accessories, home automation, water purifier, air purifier, cooker and many other. It sells its products in several countries.
One of the country in which Xiaomi sells its smartphone is Brazil. The company debuted in Brazil (Brasil) last year in June. Mi hosted a Grand launch event in Brazil on 30 June 2015. It is yet to complete its one year of operation and reports already suggests that its journey could end in less than a year in Brazil.
Xiaomi’s Vice President, Hugo Barra, is a Brazilian and he was the one who took the center stage at the launch event in Brasil. The company invited several Mi fans at the gala event. Key media people were also invited.
Xiaomi Redmi 2 was the first smartphone to be launched in Brazil. As with other countries, Xiaomi tried to sell its smartphone via its traditional flash sale model. In the initial flash sales, many people complained that the ‘Buy’ button wasn’t working and it left many people frustrated.
Another issue which Brazilian people were facing with Mi Redmi 2 was lack of payment options. In Brazil, people likes to pay via slip. But initially paying in slip payment method was not there. Xiaomi failed to replicate the flash sale model in Brazil and became almost unknown brand. Later the company partnered with Vivo to sell its smartphone with carriers and now it is available at most offline retail stores in Brazil. But it looks like no is liking the Chinese brand in the country.
In Hugo Barra’s Home turf, he couldn’t manage to make the brand successful. As per the report from Manualdousuario, Xiaomi is planning to wind up the operations from Brazil and could stop selling its products in coming months.
As per the report, Xiaomi is managing to sell only 10,000 units per month, which is very low. As per IDC report, 47 Million smartphones were sold in Brazil in 2015 which translates to 3.33 Million units per month. So you can see that Xiaomi is not even selling 1% of smartphones in the country. If the report is true than Mi is selling only 0.3% of total smartphone sold Brazil.
The report further states that Xiaomi has stopped manufacturing smartphones in Brazil. It was making its smartphone at Foxconn plant. It has now ceased all the operations at the Foxconn plant. It indicates that Xiaomi could be a failure in Brazil.
Another issue which Xiaomi is facing in Brazil is that it is not allowed to sell its accessories. Anatel which is a regulatory agency has restricted the company from selling Mi Power Bank and headphones. In the preliminary testing by Anatel, it found that Power Bank has leaking issues and it can be exploded as well. More intensive testing will require another six months, so the company cannot sell its Mi Power Bank, headphones until it gets approval. They already have lots of stock imported which will now remain in the warehouse.
It unclear how much info shared in this report is true. When the publication contacted Xiaomi about it, they received following reply:
“The information is unfounded. We are even expanding the channels through which we sell our products, see partnerships with Walmart, Cnova, Webfones, etc. “
Well whatever may the case, we will come to know soon. And if the reports are true, the company could leave Brazil in less than a year.