Xiaomi to go public in nine years: Lei Jun

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi Corp, attends the 2016 Tianjin Summer Davos, held in Tianjin, North China, June 26, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi Corp, said on Monday the Chinese smartphone vendor will go public in nine years.

"When I founded Xiaomi in 2010, I knew clearly that it would take 15 years for Xiaomi to go public, because the company’s business model is too complicated and consumers need time to cultivate belief in our products," Lei said.

The Chinese tech tycoon made the comment at the ongoing 2016 Tianjin Summer Davos.

According to him, Xiaomi was never meant to be just a smartphone vendor. Instead, the company's goal is to be the Muji in China’s tech sector. Muji is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods.

"That is why we are expanding our portfolio of products from smartphones to drones, air purifiers, patch panels to rice cookers," Lei said.

"We need about 40 electronic products to attract consumers to both our online shopping platform and offline retailing stores," he said, adding the company has invested into 55 smart-hardware manufacturers in recent years.

Currently, the company opens about five to 10 brick-and-mortar stores every month. Every store covers 250 square meters and can sell about 1 million yuan worth of products on its first day, Lei said.

Earlier, Xiaomi announced it would open 200 to 300 retail stores to bolster sales as online selling, the channel Xiaomi had heavily relied on in the past, hit a ceiling point.