Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi attributes its success in India to social media and the internet.
Xiaomi entered India in 2014, and recently celebrated the completion of a year's operation in the country.
"We have used online and social media as a big platform to spread the good word around Xiaomi," Manu Jain, India head, Xiaomi told NDTV while stressing on the fact that they have had zero spends on any marketing imitative. (Watch the full interview)
"From a marketing perspective we have not done any kind of paid marketing like TV or print or anything else. We have basically leveraged the power of social media - Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms."
Xiaomi surpassed global biggies Samsung and Apple in terms of market share to become India's top 4G handset seller in January this year, according to CyberMedia Research.
Despite internet penetration in India being low at around 12-15 per cent, it is growing rapidly and the fact that Xiaomi's target group is young population- most of whom are using the internet through smartphones - has helped the brand immensely, Mr Jain said.
"Our target group is young internet savvy, tech savvy people...these people become our brand ambassadors and recommend these phones. Entire phenomenon driven by word of mouth," he said.
Xiaomi in India had started selling through Flipkart and subsequently joined hands with Amazon and Snapdeal. Recently it has own selling through its own e-commerce platform - mi.com. "Today more than 90 per cent of our sales come through all these four e-commerce platforms," Mr Jain said.
Xiaomi has started selling through offline stores in India as well, but says online will continue to be its dominant strategy. Going forward offline stores are likely to contribute 20-30 per cent of the sales, Mr Jain said.
Currently Xiaomi, sells its device offline through Airtel stores and The Mobile Store. "This was basically to give more access point to consumers to touch and feel and buy a phone if you're not comfortable with online."
Xiaomi has also tied up with Redington to distribute its smartphones in offline stores or brick-and-mortar outlets. Redington is also one of Apple's distributors in India.
"New partnership with Redington should probably go live this week and this a new way of selling phones other than just selling online," Mr Jain said.
(With PTI inputs)
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