This is a series of articles aimed at making people aware of the endangered Unicorns that exist among us.
It is not their fault that they are endangered. It’s the price and pride of ownership. So where along the way the decision was made to feed them more than they can consume and that lean was not as import as means.
Some of the unicorns have done well on this diet. Others have not. We don’t pass judgement on the individual unicorns. We just highlight the herd for your awareness.
Currently we have gained a new Unicorn and the count is 156.
Xiaomi
It might be the great firewall of China is an aid to Xiaomi growth, but certainly it’s vision is international. The company’s name means “little rice” in Chinese, but within China the social aspects of the Xiaomi product line is apparent. The founder Lei Jun is like the Mark Zuckerberg of China and the product launches rival the Steve Jobs grandeur. Combined with their social media prowess, moderate pricing strategy and frequent software releases the company has a market valuation of 46B.
Of note is the fact that Qualcomm is an investor. The WSJ lists Huawei and Lenovo as its competitors but Apple and Google come to mind first internationally.