We all know how serious is Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi about the 
Indian market. The company is also planning to establish its research and development centre in the country. Xiaomi’s VP Hugo Barra shared that the R&D centre in India would focus on building mobile internet services for the local, as well as, global audience.
Highlighting the reasons why company is planning to branch out its research activities beyond China, Barra said that the audience in India is pretty similar to the global audiences. However, the Chinese audience is different. He emphasised that the R&D facility in India would help in building mobile internet products that could help the company increase its global reach. Barra is also impressed with the kind of talent that is available in the country and said that it can help Xiaomi in inventing modern solutions.
Barra said that the centre in India will have two major roles to play. He told, “The first and most important role is to build mobile Internet services that are made for India, which will include some developments of our own, and a lot of co-development with local players that are building relevant services that will uplift Xiaomi’s operating system.”
Given the fact that Xiaomi’s business is on a rise, the second role highlighted by the company would mean additional business for local Internet startups. Barra has previously hinted on his plans to invest in Indian start-ups.
However, he did not share a timeline about when will the R&D facility come up, but he did mention that the company has high hopes from this set-up in India. He said, “We also want the R&D centre in India to become a global development centre eventually. We believe that given the proper expertise we can recruit here in India, we could be in a position to build services for the rest of the world.”
