Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi just released its first quarterly results since announcing its $1.48 billion pledge to focus on smartphones and “AIoT,” an acronym for Internet of Things powered by artificial intelligence.
Xiaomi’s adjusted net profit for the first quarter increased 22.4% year-over-year to 2.1 billion yuan ($300 million), while total revenue climbed 27.2% to 43.8 billion yuan ($6.33 billion).
Sales in India, where Xiaomi handsets dominate, as well as other countries outside China, continued to be a bright spot for the company. International markets brought in 38% of its total revenue over the first quarter, representing a 35% increase. Xiaomi’s overseas momentum came amid a global slowdown in the smartphone sector and at a time its rival Huawei copes with a technology ban that threatens to hobble international sales.
Smartphones remained as Xiaomi’s biggest revenue driver, though the segment had shrunk from 67.5% of total revenue in Q1 of 2018 to 61.7% a year later. According to Canalys, Xiaomi was the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker by units shipped in the first quarter. A brand traditionally popular among male consumers, Xiaomi has made efforts to court female users by taking over Meitu’s smartphone business that would allow it to sell selfie-optimizing devices.
Xiaomi’s “IoT and lifestyle” unit, which churns out a wide range of home appliances, from air purifiers to suitcases, saw its share of revenue jump from 22.4% to 27.5% year-over-year.
Xiaomi said growth of this segment was primarily driven by smart TV sales, a new area of focus at the smartphone company. In January, Xiaomi announced taking a 0.48% stake in TV manufacturer TCL, deepening an existing alliance that saw the two work together to integrate Xiaomi’s operating system into TCL products.
Xiaomi has long tried to differentiate itself from other hardware firms by making money not just from gadgets but also from software and internet services sold through those devices. But the latter portion is still relatively paltry, accounting for just 9.7% of Xiaomi’s total revenue, compared to 9.1% a year before.
As of March, Xiaomi owned 261 million monthly active users through its MIUI operating system installed across all devices, a 37.3% growth YoY. The number of IoT devices, excluding smartphones and laptops, jumped 70% to reach approximately 171.0 million units.