Xiaomi in Russia

2023: Recruitment to Moscow office

At the end of January 2023, it became known that Xiaomi and Honor resumed recruiting to their Russian offices. In particular, Chinese smartphone manufacturers are looking for specialists in the purchase of advertising in the media and from bloggers.

The Moscow office of Honor requires nine people, indicated on the job search website. HeadHunter Among them is a partner manager who will interact with Russian distributors to launch new products.

According to Izvestia, such activities may indicate the resumption of marketing activity of Xiaomi and Honor. In addition, companies can again enter the Russian market, especially given the fact that they are spurred by the active actions of competitors, experts interviewed by the publication say.

Xiaomi recruits for media ads

The Chinese company Honor has stopped the "silence regime," which began in March 2022, an informed source told the newspaper. Including it concerned the import of devices directly and the termination of advertising activities in Russia. Now the company has begun to "work in full force," which also affected the purchase of advertising in the media and from bloggers, the publication says.

Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin noted that both companies have a fairly large range of goods on the Russian market, so they need people to sell products.

Xiaomi and Honor are most likely planning to resume their full presence in Russia, although they are afraid of the possible imposition of sanctions, said Sergei Trostyansky, deputy director of the NTI Competence Center for Large Data at Moscow State University. In his opinion, this is a good signal that shows that "Chinese companies are reconsidering their attitude to the situation on the Russian market and sanctions pressure from Western countries on Russia."^[1]

Later, in April 2023, Xiaomi protested to Ukraine over the inclusion of "war sponsors" in the list, and stated that all consumers have the right to access means of communication and information on the Internet.

Ukraine previously included the Chinese manufacturer in the list of "international sponsors of the war" for refusing to leave the Russian market, but this action did not make any impression on anyone.

2022: Halving smartphone sales

Xiaomi and Huawei have suddenly halved the volume of shipments of their smartphones shipped to Russia. This became known on March 10, 2022. Oppo, another Chinese company, took a similar step, moreover, all three did it absolutely without warning.

The decision was made against the background of the rapid collapse of the ruble, as well as international anti-Russian sanctions. All this was the result of a special operation in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the beginning of which was announced on February 24, 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Importantly, neither Huawei, Xiaomi nor Oppo have officially announced supply restrictions. On March 10, there was no data on how long they will last, and whether the companies plan to completely leave the Russian market.

According to sources in the companies, primarily Xiaomi, Oppo and Huawei decided to limit supplies precisely because of the ruble exchange rate. Companies need to raise prices to compensate for the historically low ruble-to-dollar exchange rate, but Russians are unlikely to be ready to buy Chinese mobile phones at inflated prices.

For March 2022, it is risky to work in Russia, "one of Huawei's former top managers told the publication. - Openly announcing the suspension of sales in the Russian market, as Apple and Samsung did, is politically sensitive. But in terms of business, it makes sense to stay away and see how[2] to Russia will develop[3].

2021

First place in the number of delivered smartphones in Russia

Main article: Smartphones (Russian market)

According to Canalys, Xiaomi took first place in the supply of smartphones to the Russian market in pieces in 2021. The share of Xiaomi deliveries was 31% and showed a 49% increase compared to the previous year.

Opening of stores together with MTS

At the end of February 2021, MTS and Xiaomi began opening joint stores in which consumer electronics, household appliances, televisions, gadgets and accessories will be sold only by this Chinese manufacturer.

In turn, the Russian telecom operator will sell its contracts, MTS Bank banking services, satellite television, subscriptions to media content, etc. In showrooms and sales offices of the new format, you can get acquainted with the operation of the smart home system with various sensors.

The first such salon opens in Tula. In total, it is planned to launch "dozens of joint stores with Xiaomi throughout Russia," a MTS representative told Vedomosti.

MTS and Xiaomi began to open joint stores

In addition, MTS is expanding the range of Xiaomi products in its own retail network and online store.

The Xiaomi brand, which produces inexpensive high-quality smartphones, is well known in Russia, in terms of sales of these devices in physical terms, the vendor ranked second in the fourth quarter of 2020, - a MTS representative commented to the publication.

The creation of co-branded stores should help attract additional customer traffic, he said.

MTS agreed with Xiaomi to open joint stores against the background of optimization of its retail network. Earlier, the telecom operator closed about 600 salons; by the end of February 2021, the company has about 5.2 thousand such points.

As for Xiaomi, the company is actively developing business in the Russian market through partner projects. So, in February 2021, the Chinese vendor announced cooperation with the Internet holding, as Mail.ru Group a result of which Xiaomi smart devices received support voice assistant. " By Marusya the beginning of 2021, Xiaomi products account for about 20% of sales smartphones in the Russian Federation in pieces.^[4]

2020: Philip Gens Company Opens Xiaomi Stores

On July 15, 2020, Inventive Retail Group announced the launch of the Xiaomi chain of stores. The first of them will work on July 22 at the FORT Otradnoye shopping center (formerly Golden Babylon Otradnoye). The area of ​ ​ this outlet is 75 sq. m. Read more here.

2019: MasterCard agreement to launch Mi Pay in Russia

On June 6, 2019, it became known that Xiaomi and MasterCard signed a strategic partnership agreement in Russia. The agreement, under which the parties plan to work on the spread of payment innovations and the launch in Russia of the digital payment service Mi Pay. Read more here.

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