BBC online Chinese tech company Xiaomi has come to dominate India's massive low-cost smartphone market in a few short years. The BBC's Krutika Pathi talks to tech experts to understand just how that happened.
Fifteen minutes - that's how long it took for Xiaomi's latest smartphone, Redmi Note 8, to sell out once it went on a "flash sale" online on Monday.
But this isn't unusual among the company's products, and is a key part of its India strategy.
"You've got to register online first and then keep an eye out for these flash sales - then you pounce," Mala Bhargava, a technology journalist, told the BBC.
While Xiaomi's mobiles are also available offline at stores, most new models are first sold online, which accounts for more than half of their sales.
"The online community the brand has amassed is astonishing," Jayanth Kolla, partner at telecom research firm Convergence Catalyst, said.
When Xiaomi entered the Indian market in 2015, Mr Kolla explained, it did not invest in brick and mortar stores. Instead, they focused on selling their products online. This kept distribution costs low and that made the phones cheaper.
"Their heavy online presence also helped them gain a cult-like following in India, allowing Xiaomi to cement itself as a serious player in the country's fickle smartphone market," he added.
Chinese companies now control more than half of India's burgeoning smartphone market - with more than 450 million users, it's approximately worth $8bn (£6bn).
And Xiaomi, once referred to as the brand behind "the poor man's iPhone", is leading the pack - it owns 28% of the Indian market. That's a steep rise for a company that had just 3% of the market in 2016.
Comentarios