On April 22, 2014, Xiaomi changed its domain name xiaomi.com to mi.com, the original domain name will redirect to mi.com. Except for changing a new domain, Xiaomi’s website redesigned to highlight e-commerce and its seven main products.
Xiaomi’s co-founder Li Wanqiang revealed on Weibo, that “MI” stands for “Mobile Internet”. It indicates that Xiaomi was born in mobile internet era.
Analysts guessed that the change of domain was related to Xiaomi’s global strategy. “mi.com” is shorter, and more easy for consumers to remember which has a stronger brand recognition than xiaomi.com.
Xiaomi’s global team was led by Hugo Barra, who used to work for Google for 6 years before joining Xiaomi in last October. In 2014, Xiaomi’s globalization first targeted at South East Asia where many Chinese assembled, and Singapore became the first stop. Xiaomi MI3 entered Singapore in March 2014, it was sold out in a few minutes. According to Hugo, Xiaomi plans to enter Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines in the next few weeks. At the same time, Xiaomi is also recruiting overseas teams in India, Brazil and Mexico.
Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun revealed Xiaomi’s sales in 2013 early this year. Just a few days ago, Lei Jun announced the first quarter’s sales data, Xiaomi sold out 11 million smartphones. Lei Jun also changed Xiaomi’s target in 2014 to 60 million devices and 80 billion yuan (USD 12.94 billion) revenue.