Summary China's Xiaomi Technology is a fairy tale for nerdy entrepreneurs.
BEIJING: Less than three years after its founding, the smartphone maker is valued at $4 billion and evokes Apple-like adoration from its fans, some of whom are desperate enough to skip work for a shot at buying the latest product the day it goes on sale.
Founder Lei Jun dresses like the late Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black top. He has created a fervent fan base for Xiaomi s moderately priced high-end smartphones by mimicking Apple Inc s marketing tactic of attaching an aura of exclusivity around its products.
Before Xiaomi, the 42-year-old Lei was a key investor in China s early Internet scene, co-founding startups including Joyo.cn, which was eventually sold to Amazon.com Inc, and the recently listed YY Inc.
Born in Xiantao, a small city in China s central Hubei province better known for breeding Olympic gymnasts than billionaire technocrats, Lei brushes off comparisons to Jobs but concedes that the Apple visionary was an inspiration. "China s media say I am China s Steve Jobs," Lei told Reuters in an interview.
"I will take this as a compliment but such kind of comparison brings us huge pressure," said Lei, who grew up assembling radios as a hobby. "Xiaomi and Apple are two totally different companies. Xiaomi s based on the Internet. We are not doing the same thing as Apple."
