Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is having a high time in its home market. The consumer electronics company on Tuesday reported a net profit in its fourth quarter of 4.73 billion yuan, or $657.1 million. That was higher than the previous year, The Wall Street Journal reports, but lower than its net profit of CNY4.87 billion, or $676.5 million, in the third quarter.
Still, its fourth-quarter results beat analysts’ expectations. The company’s quarterly revenue increased 11% from the previous year to CNY73.24 billion, or $10.2 billion.
Xiaomi saw a full-year net profit of CNY17.48 billion, or $2.4 billion — a seven-fold increase from 2022 — although annual revenue fell to CNY270.97 billion or $37.6 billion, still beating analysts’ expectations.
Overall, the Chinese smartphone market was down 7% year-over-year during the first six weeks of the year. Xiaomi’s sales fell 7% year-over-year during this period, while its American competitor Apple saw iPhone sales fall 24% year-over-year, according to a report from Counterpoint Research. Apple’s steep drop was partly due to “abnormally high” iPhone sales the year before, analysts said in the report. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s homegrown competitor, Huawei, saw a resurgence in the country after releasing a new series of smartphones.
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In addition to competing with Huawei, Apple was “getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi,” Mengmeng Zhang, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.
Analysts said growth in China’s smartphone market is likely to remain negative during the first quarter of the year, as consumers spend less and companies offer less new products.