China's Xiaomi more than doubles 2014 sales on global smartphone push

Xiaomi will continue to expand globally after its 2014 sales more than doubled to 74.3 billion yuan (HK$93.7 billion), said founder and chairman Lei Jun.

Lei said on his account that pre-tax sales rose 135 per cent in 2014 while shipments increased 227 per cent year on year to 61.1 million units. Lei did not give the profit figures.

Huang Meng, an executive director at telecommunications and internet business-focused Eagle Stone Investment, however, said he is not upbeat on Xiaomi's overseas push.

"Xiaomi is very weak in terms of patent and intellectual property rights but the international markets, especially the mature developed markets, attach great importance to patents, to quality," Huang said. "Xiaomi can't afford to fight a patent war."

Lei said Xiaomi expanded into six countries last year. In particular in India, it sold 1 million handsets. But by the end of last year the firm got a rude surprise when telecommunications giant Ericsson's legal action against it over alleged patent infringement forced a halt to sales of some Xiaomi models in India.

Lei called the event a "rite of passage" for a young company.