Vice-president of low-cost smartphone maker Xiaomi Global Hugo Barra, spoke up for his company at Startup Asia last week.
When asked if putting up a limited number of units that would eventually become 'sold out in minutes' was a strategy Xiaomi was employing to gain popularity in Southeast Asia, the former Googler said, "that's not true — the number of phones we put up for sale at any one time is dependent on the delivery capacity of our logistics partners". "Imagine how many trucks and how much time it will take to deliver say, 10,000 units. We don't want customers who purchase today to get their phones four days after a fellow customer gets his," he explained.
Barra also revealed that this is part of one of Xiaomi's winning methods of working, taking feedback at scale. "There are a few things that Xiaomi does as a company that I've never seen anyone do in my life. This is one of them. We produce how much we can in one week, release it the following week and take feedback so we can improve on the second lot. Having 100,000 phones with a batch flaw is more dangerous than having 50,000 phones with the same issue."
According to Barra, who said he left Google so he could "work for a company that was going to change the world", there's also a level of passion at Xiaomi, common in Chinese startups, that he's never seen elsewhere. "People are committed in building whatever it is they're working on like it's their responsibility in life," he mused.
So what other things does Xiaomi do right as a startup that we can all learn from? "Well, a lot of the other stuff is what companies like Google and Facebook have been doing. Xiaomi is a company made up of small teams, enabling it to move fast. It's the typical modern-day startup model, except they've added more to it. The company is best described as a collection of startups, with eight different co-founders, each responsible for a different aspect. They each run it as a founder. The company truly has many different moving parts."
Hugo Barra finished his eye-opening stint at Startup Asia with his thoughts on expanding to Singapore:
"Singapore has spectacular infrastructure and a thriving e-commerce eco-system — people are used to buying stuff online here. It's really a window into the region... There are like, 25 different reasons to be in Singapore."
Photo: Tech in Asia
Vice-president of low-cost smartphone maker Xiaomi Global Hugo Barra, spoke up for his company at Startup Asia last week.
When asked if putting up a limited number of units that would eventually become 'sold out in minutes' was a strategy Xiaomi was employing to gain popularity in Southeast Asia, the former Googler said, "that's not true — the number of phones we put up for sale at any one time is dependent on the delivery capacity of our logistics partners". "Imagine how many trucks and how much time it will take to deliver say, 10,000 units. We don't want customers who purchase today to get their phones four days after a fellow customer gets his," he explained.
Barra also revealed that this is part of one of Xiaomi's winning methods of working, taking feedback at scale. "There are a few things that Xiaomi does as a company that I've never seen anyone do in my life. This is one of them. We produce how much we can in one week, release it the following week and take feedback so we can improve on the second lot. Having 100,000 phones with a batch flaw is more dangerous than having 50,000 phones with the same issue."
According to Barra, who said he left Google so he could "work for a company that was going to change the world", there's also a level of passion at Xiaomi, common in Chinese startups, that he's never seen elsewhere. "People are committed in building whatever it is they're working on like it's their responsibility in life," he mused.
So what other things does Xiaomi do right as a startup that we can all learn from? "Well, a lot of the other stuff is what companies like Google and Facebook have been doing. Xiaomi is a company made up of small teams, enabling it to move fast. It's the typical modern-day startup model, except they've added more to it. The company is best described as a collection of startups, with eight different co-founders, each responsible for a different aspect. They each run it as a founder. The company truly has many different moving parts."
Hugo Barra finished his eye-opening stint at Startup Asia with his thoughts on expanding to Singapore:
"Singapore has spectacular infrastructure and a thriving e-commerce eco-system — people are used to buying stuff online here. It's really a window into the region... There are like, 25 different reasons to be in Singapore."
Photo: Tech in Asia