Xiaomi smartphone users spend more time in apps than China’s iPhone owners, according to analytics firm Flurry. It’s the first time an Android-based brand has managed such a feat.

“This is a big win for a small start-up,” said Simon Khalaf, Flurry CEO, in a blog.

Based on a random sample of 23,000 Chinese smartphones in January 2014, Flurry found Xiaomi smartphone users spent 7 per cent more time in apps than iPhone users (see table).

flurry xiaomi

When measured against Samsung and HTC users, China’s Xiaomi does even better with a time-gap advantage exceeding 20 per cent.

“Flurry’s app data also paints a clear and enticing picture of the typical Xiaomi user,” said Khalaf. “Young professionals are flocking to Xiaomi phones, which have a cult-like following in China. This is very promising for Xiaomi’s future, as the Chinese young professional segment is exploding in numbers, and should be for years to come.”

Given Xiaomi’s meteoric rise, Flurry dug deeper into analysing device usage and to understand better the profile of the firm’s consumers compared to the profile of average smartphone users in China (across iOS and Android).

One finding was that the average Xiaomi consumer spends 62 per cent more time on media and entertainment apps than the average smartphone consumer.

“While many analysts have dubbed Xiaomi the ‘Apple of China’, we think of Xiaomi as the Apple-meets-Netflix of China,” said Khalaf.

Xiaomi consumers also ‘over index’ compared to rivals on productivity apps by 28 per cent, but they ‘under index’ on gaming (9 per cent) and social/messaging (7 per cent).

When looking at gender, Xiaomi consumers are slightly more likely to be male (54 per cent) than female (46 per cent), but that’s not remarkably different from the average smartphone consumer.

Differences are more pronounced when it comes to age. Xiaomi consumers over-index on the 13-17, 18-24 and 25-34 segments but under-index on the 35-54 and 55+ segments.

“This data shows that the Xiaomi devices are very popular among the young population of China, especially college students and young adults who just entered the workforce,” said the Flurry CEO.

Xiaomi users over index on Flurry’s business professional persona by a large factor. They also over-index on the parenting and education persona, as well as the fitness enthusiast persona (but they tend to slightly under-index on gaming).

“This analysis is giving us a clear image of Xiaomi Chinese consumers,” said Khalaf. “The data is pointing towards young business professionals, most likely college-educated. This is a fast growing segment in China and a main driver behind China’s new consumer-driven economy.”