"In 2021 we experienced a very complex situation," Xiaomi president Wang Xiang said in an earnings call.
"Supply is in a very severe or tight
position, and there is a geopolitical impact. However, Xiaomi's performance has
shown we are a resilient company."
Revenue rose to CNY 85.58 billion in the
quarter ended December 31, compared with CNY 70.46 billion in the year earlier
period and analyst expectations for CNY 81.80 billion, according to Refinitiv
data.
Smartphone shipments rose 4.4 percent to
44.1 million units in the quarter, Xiaomi said in a statement.
Net income rose 39.6 percent to CNY 4.47
billion, also above analyst expectations.
In an earnings call, Wang said that
ensuring a steady supply of chips was still challenging in the first quarter of
2022, but expected the situation to improve by June.
The company, which gets the vast majority
of its revenue from selling mobile handsets, said smartphone revenue rose 18.4
percent to CNY 50.5 billion in the quarter ended December 31.
Last year, Xiaomi grabbed market share in
its home market China away from Huawei, which lost its smartphone momentum
after the United States placed export restrictions on its suppliers. But Huawei
spinoff Honor came back strong in the second half of 2021, finishing the fourth
quarter with a 16 percent market share in China — the same as Xiaomi —
according to data from Canalyst.
Xiaomi's fourth-quarter smartphone
shipments in China rose 10 percent, according to research firm Canalys.
Globally, its shipments rose 5 percent.
Slowing handset demand in China, the
company's largest market, has prompted Xiaomi to look for new opportunities.
The company is slated to invest $10 billion
over the next ten years into making electric cars, which it hopes to bring to
market by 2024.
The company has also ramped up investments
in chips, releasing its first device with a self-developed image signal
processor.
Wang said that investments in chips would
go into areas "directly related to user experience," such as fast
charging.
Xiaomi has also expanded its
brick-and-mortar retail footprint, in hopes of attracting more customers.
Xiaomi reported a 33.5 percent rise in 2021
revenue, which hit CNY 328.3 billion, versus an average analyst estimate of CNY
325.862 billion. © Reuters