Xiaomi and Tencent top the headlines for China this week, along with some big announcements for the new year. Here’s our top eight stories out of China for the start of 2014.
1. Budget phone-maker Coolpad thinks it can sell more 4G smartphones than Samsung in China this year
With an array of cheap new smartphones on the way, Coolpad hopes to undercut the competition early in the 4G race.
2. China’s top daily deals site doubles sales in 2013, now pulls in over $16 million each day
Meituan is the king of the – literally – hundreds, maybe thousands, of startups that popped up in the wake of Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), but it’s actually Alibaba’s daily deals portal (called Juhuasuan, a part of its popular Taobao e-commerce marketplace) that sells the most deals online in China.
3. Where do Xiaomi’s 30 million MIUI users live, and what do they do on their phones? (INFOGRAPHIC)
It’s possible that in addition to hitting new markets, Xiaomi might ramp up its efforts to make MIUI more than just an Anrdroid skin with some apps and services tacked on, as it seeks to make the ROM’s revenues even bigger.
4. Xiaomi sold 18.7 million phones in 2013, more than double its previous year’s tally
It has a slim line-up by the standards of most phone brands, selling four phone models (Xiaomi Mi3, Mi2S, Mi2A, Hongmi), plus a smart TV, a TV set-top box, and an Apple Airport Extreme-style wi-fi router.
5. Sina Weibo users tweet a record 800k posts in first minute of 2014
A whopping 808,298 posts surpassed last year’s record of 729,521, according to an official Sina account.
6. China’s Xiaomi confirms it will bring its smartphones to Singapore this year
The move to the city-state will test the company’s chops in a market in which consumers have higher incomes on average.
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