小米战略发展重心转向印度

Chinese telecoms group Xiaomi will prioritise India over its home market and invest $1bn in the country’s start-ups as it looks to accelerate growth outside of its highly competitive home market.

中国电信制造集团小米(Xiaomi)将把印度市场放在比本土市场更优先考虑的位置，并将向印度初创企业投资10亿美元。该公司正寻求在竞争激烈的本土市场以外加速增长。

Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company wanted create an ecosystem of mobile apps for use on its smartphones — a strategy pioneered by Apple, whose more expensive iPhones are barely present in the Indian market.

小米的联合创始人和首席执行官雷军表示，该公司希望为用于其智能手机的移动应用创建一个生态系统;这是苹果(Apple)首创的一项战略，但价格较高的苹果iPhone在印度市场上份额很小。

“India is becoming a bigger priority compared to China when it comes to R&D to make India-focused products, and supply and stock for product lines,” Xiaomi said. For example, the company will supply components for its fast-selling Redmi phones to India first in case of shortages.

“在为了制造面向印度的产品而进行研发、以及产品线的供应和库存方面，印度正在成为比中国更大的优先考虑对象，”小米表示。例如，在出现短缺的情况下，该公司将首先向印度供应其畅销的红米(Redmi)手机的组件。

The latest move to focus on India comes as China’s smartphone makers look abroad for expansion.

关注印度的最新举动出炉之际，中国的智能手机制造商正纷纷在境外寻求扩张。

“The China market is saturated, so now Xiaomi is turning its attention to India,” said Xiaohan Tay, a senior market analyst at IDC, the market research company.

“中国市场已经饱和，所以现在小米正在把注意力转向印度，”市场研究公司IDC的资深市场分析师Xiaohan Tay表示。

China’s smartphone makers have conquered almost half of the Indian market, led by Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo. 中国智能手机制造商占据了印度市场的近一半，领头的几家企业是小米、联想(Lenovo)、Oppo和Vivo。

Xiaomi is tied with Samsung as India’s top smartphone vendor, according to IDC. The company has rejoined the ranks of the world’s top five smartphone makers largely thanks to its growth in the country, according to data from IDC. Shipments in India more than doubled to 27.6m helped by bumper sales ahead of the Diwali festival period.

IDC数据显示，小米与三星(Samsung)并列为印度最大智能手机卖家。根据IDC的数据，小米之所以能够重返全球前五大智能手机制造商之列，主要是因为在印度实现了较大增长。在印度排灯节之前的旺盛销售推动在该国的出货量增加一倍多，达到了2760万部。

“China’s smartphone brands have had excellent performance in India and Southeast Asia in recent years,” said Wang Mengxuan, analyst at market research company iResearch.

“近年来，中国的智能手机品牌在印度和东南亚地区表现出色，”市场研究公司艾瑞咨询(iResearch)分析师Wang Mengxuan表示

“Users there are generally more price sensitive, and China’s brands are showing their advantage in cost-effective offline sales, gradually squeezing out local brands and other international brands such as Samsung,” added Ms Wang.

“那里的用户普遍对价格比较敏感，而中国品牌在线下销售的成本效益方面展现出优势，逐渐排挤本土品牌和三星等其他国际品牌，”Wang Mengxuan补充说。

Xiaomi’s fortunes have bounced back after Mr Lei admitted earlier this year that the company had grown too quickly.

在雷军今年早些时候承认公司发展过快之后，小米的命运已峰回路转。

Additional reporting by Yingzhi Yang Yingzhi Yang补充报道