Xiaomi restless due to ban on app in India

Xiaomi's MI community has been banned by the Indian government at a time when it was going through a bad phase. This new setback has hit the core of its business model in India when the Chinese consumer electronics giant was recovering from poor sales and supply chain woes due to the Kovid-19 epidemic.

Since entering the local market in mid-2014, the community has played a key role in its rapid growth and being the center of the program reaching consumers. With more than 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store, this 'MI Community-Xiaomi Forum' app is the most convenient medium for a strong community platform with an estimated 100 million subscribers to Xiaomi. Experts say that due to the ban on this app in India, Xiaomi may have to change its business model here. Although many consumer technology companies such as Oppo, Realme, and OnePlus now have a similar medium, the Mi Community's importance in the Indian model of Xiaomi is much higher than its other competitors in the market. This has played an important role in elevating Xiaomi. It has also helped it occupy the top position in the highly competitive market of smartphones within four years of its entry in mid-2018.

When Xiaomi moved away from traditional methods of publicity, such as building brand recognition from television commercials and popular sporting events, it relied on its fans' community and oral publicity from the outset. As the company likes to say - the MI community is a much larger group of social media activists who do more than simply upload and broadcast some promotional videos on social media platforms. These people, spread across the country, are one of the most important assets of the company that she trusts.

According to TechArk principal analyst Faizal Kavusa, the model of two-way communication as an MI community helps the company to anticipate consumers' moods and assess users directly. It is the most attractive community as compared to all other active communities in India. It has importance in Xiaomi's business. He said that Xiaomi is reputed as a technology company, not just a hardware-selling company, and therefore its true value lies in this type of software ecosystem.

These fans have also grown along with Xiaomi's fortunes in the country, from spreading updates about the brand and future devices to creating personal orally acclaim for Xiaomi. When Xiaomi launched its first device in India in mid-2014, it had around 10,000 members, which grew to around 3 million by the end of 2018 and more than 10 million by 2020.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi has transformed into a giant company. It occupies about 30 percent of the country's 150 million-unit smartphone market and has held the top position since mid-2018. Its revenue was Rs 1,046 crore in the year 2015-16, which has increased 34 times to more than Rs 35,300 crore in the year 2018-19.