Xiaomi, the nation’s leading smartphone company in China, just held its press conference a few days ago. Compared with Apple, it still has a long way to go, but it has grown up in an extremely high speed.

In terms of operation, it has the same business structure as Dell- selling products directly to customers online. This helps it slash operating costs and its inventory, building a competitive advantage for it. It doesn’t have to pay for the costs to the network operators and retail stores. As it has the channel directly connected to consumers, it has launched a customer voting system as a form of democracy, customizing the products and building closer relations with consumers at the same time. In this case, it is able to predict the demand accurately as well.

However, Xiaomi still has a great problem in operation. It gains a bad reputation for its low quality which is the main reason why it is threatened by other competitors. It should focus more and do some enhancement on supervising the producing process in order to improve the quality of the products.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21586344-xiaomi-often-described-chinas-answer-apple-actually-quite-different-taking-bite-out