China-based device vendor Xiaomi reported robust growth across all of its business lines in 2018 as it benefited from international expansion, with smartphone revenue and shipments rising sharply in a falling global market.

Smartphone revenue last year rose 41.3 per cent year-on-year to CNY114 billion ($17 billion), with shipments increasing 29.8 per cent to 118.7 million units.

Xiaomi chairman and CEO Lei Jun declared the company “continued to shine – even in the face of fierce competition from domestic and international peers”.

He said its strategies of using multiple smartphone brands, strengthening the performance of the high-end market, accelerating the development of new retail channels and focusing on AI development and applications all yielded remarkable results.

Its smartphone ASP in mainland China increased 17 per cent from the previous year, while the ASP in international markets increased 9.7 per cent.

Group-wide growth
Across the group, revenue grew 52.6 per cent year-on-year to CNY174.9 billion, with international turnover more than doubling to CNY70 billion and accounting for 40 per cent of total revenue (up from 28 per cent from end-December 2017).

Net profit for year 2018 reached CNY13.5 billion. Adjusted net profit (non-IFRS measure) grew 59.5 per cent year-on-year to CNY8.6 billion.

Revenue from its IoT and lifestyle products segment jumped 86.9 per cent year-over-year to CNY43.8 billion. At end-December the number of connected IoT devices (excluding smartphones and laptops) on its IoT platform reached about 150.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 193 per cent.

Its internet services business increased 61.2 per cent to CNY16 billion, while advertising revenue grew by 79.9 per cent to CNY10.1 billion, primarily driven by what it said was “continuous optimisation of recommendation algorithm and users’ increasing engagement with Xiaomi’s internet services”.

Total monthly active users (MAU) of its MIUI platform increased 41.7 per cent to 242.1 million in December 2018, while MAUs of its AI assistant reached more than 38.8 million.

Xiaomi said more than 30 per cent of its internet services revenue was generated outside of advertising and gaming from smartphones in China.