Time for Xiaomi to find 'the next big thing' before it's too late
Chinese smartphone maker needs to find 'the next big thing' if it is to achieve global success
Even before the company officially announced its plan to go public, a lot of investors, from New York to Shanghai, were debating whether Xiaomi would be able to follow in Alibaba's footsteps this year and impress the world as another China Inc success.
Xiaomi, like Alibaba, has a pretty mixed reputation in the market. Some joked Xiaomi should be renamed , thief in Chinese, due to its long record of copying foreign innovation and design ideas - for example, Apple's iPhone - and then selling such clones for incredibly low prices.
The most recent controversy followed Xiaomi's decision to move beyond its cheap smartphone business, which established its reputation, and make and sell an air purifier, priced at a few hundred yuan.
Just weeks after Xiaomi launched its cheap air purifier, a Japanese electric fan maker claimed the design closely resembled its own product, according to Japanese media. Xiaomi denied the allegations, just as it did when challenged by fans of Apple about why its smartphone looked so similar to an iPhone.
For a company now valued at about US$50 billion, it somehow feels a bit awkward that Xiaomi has been repeatedly challenged over the role copying others has played in its market success. Innovation would be the best way for it to avoid the need for more denials. What if Xiaomi could make things that surprised the whole world, as late Apple founder Steve Jobs did when he launched the iPhone?
It's time for Xiaomi to do the right thing and surprise us with something that really belongs to Xiaomi. Otherwise, I'd say its current valuation is looking optimistic as there are growing concerns on Wall Street about whether it is really worth that much money.
When Jack Ma Yun went to New York to launch the world's largest initial public offering, many people around the world were surprised.
Just a few years ago, I guess few people would have dared to predict that the biggest IPO on Wall Street would be a Chinese one. Now Alibaba's success in New York looks like just the beginning. There will be more of the likes of Alibaba to come from China and Xiaomi is the one we can expect for 2015.
To keep surprising the world with the rapid success of China Inc, we need to show the world what Wall Street often describes as the "next big thing". Recent media reports suggest both Alibaba and Xiaomi have been keen to explore what the next big thing could be, for example, research on "big data", and that's clearly the right move for China Inc.
People on Wall Street often say money is something that comes easy and goes fast too. When Alibaba and Xiaomi hold the money, we need to hope they can make the next big thing happen in China before the money goes elsewhere.
