PRESS: Russian retailers interested in China’s Xiaomi smartphones

MOSCOW, Mar 9 (PRIME) -- Russian handset retailers are studying potential demand for smartphones made by Chinese company Xiaomi, which is the second most expensive startup in the world and the fifth global leader by smartphones sales in 2015, business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday.

Multi-channel retailer Svyaznoy opened on its Web site a section dedicated to more than 10 models of Xiaomi smartphones with no price indications and no devices currently available.

The online window helps the retailer to predict demand for various models by Xiaomi, Svyaznoy’s spokeswoman Maria Zaikina told the daily. Svyaznoy offers only one model of the Xiaomi tablet for 16,990 rubles and sports bracelets by this Chinese maker.

Chinese online store JD.com started selling the Xiaomi Mi4 smartphone in Russia in late 2014 and said then that the contract with the producer was signed for a year.

Retailer Euroset is also holding negotiations on sales of Xiaomi devices, the seller’s President Alexander Malis said without elaborating.

Mobile operator MTS, which runs its own retail business, is also in talks with the Chinese producer, and the negotiations are at an advanced stage, the operator’s spokesman Dmitry Solodovnikov said.

Electronics seller M.Video is open for partnership with Xiaomi and sees potential for the brand on the local market, the retailer’s spokeswoman Olga Kobzareva said.

According to the World Street Journal, Xiaomi, created in 2010, is the second most expensive startup valued by investors at U.S. $46 billion after online taxi-hailing service Uber with $51 billion. Among investors of the Chinese maker are Russian tycoons Alisher Usmanov and Yury Milner.

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