The Beijing-based company now aims at becoming largest smartphone vendor in India, the world's fastest growing handset market, in the next three to five years, said Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi.
Lei, in an internal letter yesterday, announced that the company has sold one million smartphones in the first 18 days of this month in India, state-run China Daily reported.
"India is an extremely important market in Xiaomi's globalisation strategy. It has become our largest market outside of the Chinese mainland," Lei said.
The move highlights Xiaomi's latest efforts to revive declining sales as the Chinese smartphone market, its home turf, is reaching saturation, the report said.
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It came in the midst of anxieties among Chinese investors over growing calls for boycott of Chinese goods in India following China's blocking of India's move to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar at the UN and blocking India's bid to become the member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
According to Lei, as of Tuesday, the firm has sold one million smartphones within 18 days in October in the run-up to Diwali, the biggest festival in India.
"We will continue investing in India-expanding our supply, and further improving our after-sales service," Lei said.
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IDC China research manager Jin Di said it is hard to say whether Xiaomi can prevail in Indian market, given the growing competition from both its Chinese peers and Indian vendors.
"Almost every major Chinese smartphone brand is eyeing a presence in India. I do not think Xiaomi has a big edge, especially when India's e-commerce business, which Xiaomi is most good at, is not as well-developed as that of China," Jin was quoted as saying by the report.
In the second quarter of 2016, smartphone shipments in India grew by a healthy 15 per cent annually, while the global smartphone market grew at a modest three per cent.
Chinese brands' captured almost 27 per cent of the Indian market, data from Counterpoint Research show.
Xiaomi's arch rival Huawei said on Tuesday it would start manufacturing its first smartphone model in India in October by partnering with a local factory whose annual production capacity will reach three million units by the end of 2017.