China’s Xiaomi confirms it will bring its smartphones to Singapore this year

Today Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker known for selling top-notch handsets at bargain bin prices, revealed via social media that it’s next stop beyond the Greater China will indeed be Singapore.

Yesterday Xiaomi’s Hong Kong and Taiwan Facebook pages posted messages featuring the company’s rabbit mascot beside a Chinese dragon proclaiming “Hello Singapore”, linking to a Xiaomi Singapore Facebook page. However, now that Hugo Barra posted the same picture on his Google+ profile page, the proverbial writing is on the proverbial wall.

Curiously, the Singapore Facebook page appears to have been created in May 2013 – three months before Barra got on board. This might indicate that Xiaomi had been eyeing the move for some time.

Xiaomi had publicly indicated that its next overseas stop beyond Taiwan and Hong Kong would be Singapore back in December when it held a fan meetup in Taipei.

The move to the city-state will test the company’s chops in a market in which consumers have higher incomes on average. It also will be branching out from exclusively Chinese-speaking markets into a multi-lingual market.

Just this morning Xiaomi announced that it had sold over 18 million handsets in 2013, more than twice the 7.19 million it doled out the previous year. In 2014, it’s hoping to hit 40 million. As for revenues, the company raked in over $5.18 billion for the year.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)

(Image via Flickr user emilestefanov)