Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected 21.4 percent rise in fourth-quarter revenue, as industry shipments of handsets slowly tick up following a global chip shortage and the peak of the pandemic.
“In 2021 we experienced a very complex situation,” Xiaomi president Wang Xiang said in an earnings call, “Supply is in a very severe or tight position, and there is a geopolitical impact. However, Xiaomi’s performance has shown we are a resilient company.”
Revenue rose to 85.58 billion yuan ($13.45 billion) in the quarter ended December 31, compared with 70.46 billion yuan in the year earlier period and analyst expectations for 81.80 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.
Smartphone shipments rose 4.4 percent to 44.1 million units in the quarter, Xiaomi said in a statement, according to a Reuters report from Shanghai.
Net income rose 39.6 percent to 4.47 billion yuan, also above analyst expectations.
In an earnings call, Wang said that ensuring a steady supply of chips was still challenging in the first quarter of 2022, but expected the situation to improve by June.
The company, which gets the vast majority of its revenue from selling mobile handsets, said smartphone revenue rose 18.4 percent to 50.5 billion yuan ($7.94 billion) in the quarter ended December 31, 2021.
Last year, Xiaomi grabbed market share in its home market China away from Huawei, which lost its smartphone momentum after the United States placed export restrictions on its suppliers. But Huawei spinoff Honor came back strong in the second half of 2021, finishing the fourth quarter with a 16 percent market share in China — the same as Xiaomi — according to data from Canalys.
Xiaomi’s fourth-quarter smartphone shipments in China rose 10 percent, according to research firm Canalys. Globally, its shipments rose 5 percent.
Xiaomi reported a 33.5 percent rise in 2021 revenue, which hit 328.3 billion yuan ($51.59 billion), versus an average analyst estimate of 325.862 billion yuan.