By the second quarter of 2020, MIUI, the Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi's Android-based operating system had acquired 230 million monthly active users from outside mainland China, bringing a broad growth space for app developers ambitious to enter the global market.
On October 14, 2020, Xiaomi's (01810:HK) Global Developers Summit is held in Shenzhen, in which the company shares strategy updates and industry trends regarding its Internet services business and related services that will empower app developers to achieve further growth in global markets.
Ranking as the fourth largest smartphone shipper worldwide, Xiaomi's smartphone sales continue to deliver rapid results in its overseas market, especially in the European market during the second quarter of 2020, as the pandemic increased consumers' dependency on mobile devices. The growth of the hardware devices arena is a strong driver for the Internet services penetration in countries that are home to Xiaomi's overseas users. With approximately 70% of the total MIUI (Xiaomi's smartphone operating system) monthly active users from outside mainland China at around 230 million, the company feels the urge to enhance its software services for the overseas user group through developing the software services ecosystem.
Two major factors contribute to the company's overseas software services growth.
First, Xiaomi has strong distribution capacity. Xiaomi has a comparatively larger user base of mobile gaming users. By the end of the second quarter of 2020, the daily active gaming user is at around 120 million and daily game installation reaches 8.5 million on an average. Additionally, the company has invested lavishly in game distribution. According to samples shared by one of Xiaomi’s gaming partners, the returns of gaming promotion investment in the overseas market have increased by 90% compared to the number in April 2020. Xiaomi's app store 'GetApps' functions as the traffic portal to the various apps exhibited there. With a combination of Xiaomi’s technological capacity, streamlined operation process and comprehensive developer services, the Xiaomi-affiliated apps are more accessible to users, and consequently further drive the growth and revenue volume.
Second is the company’s platform advantage. Xiaomi meets the growing needs of global developers with marketing services covering a device’s full life cycle leveraging Xiaomi smartphone’s strong growth momentum. With pre-installation and a variety of advertising medias, Xiaomi’s marketing service not only focuses on the growth of installs, but also further helps developers increase the conversion rate and activation rate, providing marketing services to developers with an appetite to expand globally.