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Xiaomi’s first MiPop event in Singapore was a hit

It was a celebration of all things Xiaomi for loyal Singaporean fans, complete with performances and plenty of giveaways

Xiaomi is one heck of a brand. Founded in 2010, it did not sell its own smartphone till 2011, but now, just a scant three years later, the Chinese company is the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, trailing only behind behemoths Samsung and Apple. The company attributes this to many factors, but to the rest of the world, it’s two main things. First is the way the phones are priced. Xiaomi is all about making as little from the actual phone sales as possible, which is why the company’s phones are often jam packed with features at a fraction of the price of its competitors. The big money is then earned through content partnership deals, which is how Xiaomi is able to sell (for now in China only) a 49-inch 4k smart HDTV with a wireless woofer for about US$640. The second method is through its marketing, which has led to Xiaomi being called the “Apple of China”. The company has leveraged viral word-of-mouth marketing like few companies have. After all, the company does not make flashy Superbowl ads or rents massive billboard space. Instead, its goal is to create fans of the brand by being exclusive. Which is why in many parts of the world, you can only buy Xiaomi phones on its online stores and often, most models are sold out with a long wait list for incoming models. Xiaomi fans, known as MiFans, are similar to Apple’s famously evangelical fans, in that they treat the brand almost as a lifestyle choice. This movement used to be contained to Mainland China but over time, Xiaomi has amassed a huge following in countries in the Asia Pacific region and even in India, where e-commerce giant Flipkart sold out its entire stock of one million Xiaomi Redmi 1S in just 4.2 seconds. Here in Singapore, Xiaomi has a small but very devoted following, so when it was announced that Xiaomi would be holding its first ever major event, fans were jubilant. The annual event, known as MiPop, has been held in many cities across China and even in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but this marks the first time the initiative took place in Southeast Asia. Xiaomi’s International VP, Hugo Barra told e27, “Doing the first (MiPop) ever in Singapore is a really special day for all of us in the team. We have such a strong following here that if we had a venue five times this size, we would fill it to capacity.” The event, which took place in Suntec City Convention Centre on Saturday, was so anticipated that around 1,600 people applied for the 300 or so available tickets, which forced Xiaomi to have to ballot the available tickets.

For the lucky people who attended, Xiaomi played down the announcements of its products and instead focussed more on playing games and watching performances by MiFans. “This event is about celebrating MiFans,” a Xiaomi spokesperson said. Another big part of the event was the giveaways including phones, routers, smart TV boxes and, best of all, two Xiaomi TVs which are not available outside of China. Each giveaway was received with rambunctious applause by the sea of orange shirts that filled the hall.

We then asked Barra what would happen at the next MiPop with this one doing so well, “We’re not going to grow (the event) too big; we are a small company. We like to keep it like a big family event.” To end it off, Barra said to Singaporean fans, “We love you very very much and are so excited to be here.”