How to Make the Growth Flywheel Spin for the "Going Global" of the Mobile Internet

On December 20, the Xiaomi Internet Partners Conference successfully concluded in Yuxi, Yunnan. With the theme of "Overseas Gold Mining: Building an Open Ecosystem", this conference brought together many leading industry partners to jointly explore the growth opportunities and future development of overseas mobile Internet services.

All-round Business Solutions Creating Growth Opportunities

Over the past decade, the global smartphone market has developed rapidly, becoming a key force driving the rapid popularization of the mobile Internet. This digital wave has given rise to twofold opportunities: Consumers are eager for more convenient and personalized online services, while developers and brands hope to capture new growth opportunities in the continuously expanding user base.

In this booming ecosystem, smartphone manufacturers are playing a crucial role. Relying on the unique advantages of hardware and operating systems, manufacturers can provide diversified services to meet the needs of multiple parties such as users, developers, and brands, enabling the ecosystem to achieve sustainable growth and release broader development potential in win-win cooperation.

After years of innovation and development, Xiaomi, which has remained among the top three global smartphone brands for 17 consecutive quarters, has become a leader in the mobile Internet field. With a rich terminal product matrix and the powerful OS that supports the "Full Ecosystem of People, Vehicles, and Homes", Xiaomi is bringing convenient and efficient interconnected experiences to global users. In September 2024, Xiaomi's global monthly active users exceeded 685 million, with a year-on-year growth of approximately 10%.

Currently, Xiaomi has built a comprehensive, efficient, and open mobile Internet ecosystem that covers applications, games, content, and services, and is committed to continuously improving the user experience. On this basis, the Xiaomi International Internet Business Team fully leverages the manufacturer's advantages and the enabling role of the operating system. Relying on Xiaomi's extensive user base overseas, it deeply cultivates multiple business models such as customer acquisition, IAA (In-App Advertising Monetization), IAP (In-App Purchase), and game distribution, providing all-round business solutions for partners and creating abundant growth opportunities; ultimately, it works with partners to build an open ecosystem and embark on an overseas gold-mining journey.

Endpoint Capabilities Facilitating Efficient Conversion

In the key track of application and game ecosystem layout, the Xiaomi International Internet Business Team introduced its overseas official application store GetApps. Currently, GetApps has successfully expanded to more than 100 markets worldwide, with monthly active users exceeding 260 million. Adhering to the concept of "User-Centered, Born for Developers", GetApps brings dual value to users and developers through capability opening and dual-end discounts.

GetApps provides exclusive vertical category characteristic applications and games for Xiaomi devices, covering various categories such as puzzle, action, and casual, fully meeting the personalized needs of users. At the same time, relying on powerful endpoint capabilities such as Minicard, GetApps significantly improves the application distribution efficiency. With system-level empowerment, Minicard realizes the full-link optimization of the "Conversion Funnel", from priority download, one-click installation to quick cold start. Its flexible and smooth application download and installation experience has increased the user conversion rate by 26%. In addition, after developers integrate the Xiaomi Pay SDK into the application, users can enjoy an exclusive discount of up to 10%, and developers can also benefit from a more competitive low rate and additional rebates; combined with capabilities such as Minicard, it can also achieve a significant increase of 20% in ARPU (Average Revenue Per User).

The Widget Ecosystem Opens a New Growth Channel

In terms of content and service distribution, the business team launched a new content ecosystem based on the powerful OS, the "Widget Ecosystem". It disassembles the core services in the application and uses "widgets" as the carrier, which can be added to the desktop and other scene entrances with one click by users. In this way, users can obtain real-time updates of key information and directly access the core services through "widgets" without entering the application.

Thanks to the empowerment of the operating system, these widgets can be distributed to various usage scenarios, and can also be quickly accessed at full entrances such as the negative one screen, full search, and lock screen, achieving a smooth flow of service information in the full scene. In the widget store, users can also customize the appearance of the widgets to achieve a highly personalized display.

By significantly simplifying the service access steps, the "Widget Ecosystem" brings users a convenient experience of no-download and immediate use, significantly improving the user conversion rate. In addition, widgets also support various forms of carriers such as applications and H5, meeting various development needs and reducing the development difficulty.

The Manufacturer's Unique Advantages Unlock Growth and Monetization Potential

In terms of user growth and commercial monetization, the full lifecycle solution with the unique advantages of the manufacturer helps partners unlock the commercial potential. First, through the native advertising experience and the intelligent advertising platform, partners can achieve efficient customer acquisition: A variety of native touchpoints in a large number of Xiaomi devices help partners accurately reach the target users, covering user groups at different stages such as potential users, swing users, and loyal users; Under the deep collaboration of advanced AI algorithms and manufacturer-level system data, the Xiaomi advertising platform provides intelligent marketing solutions for partners, improving the advertising effect and placement efficiency, and releasing the growth potential.

Secondly, the "Columbus Monetization Platform" also further helps developers enhance the commercial value of their applications. This platform integrates high-quality direct customer resources and diversified demand-side platforms to help developers maximize their earnings; at the same time, the standardized SDK integration supports developers to quickly complete the integration and launch of advertising formats, shortening the monetization cycle; in addition, the dedicated monetization expert team can also help developers fully tap the monetization potential. In 2024, the Columbus platform has successfully integrated three major aggregation platforms, covering more than 1,500 active applications globally, and helping developers achieve monetization growth in more than 30 countries and regions. Combined with endpoint capabilities such as Minicard, the platform's eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mille) has increased by 10%.

The combination of the Xiaomi advertising platform and the Columbus platform achieves the dual-end efficiency improvement of customer acquisition and monetization, forming a positive growth flywheel, and further enabling the sustainable development of developers.

Xiaomi's overseas Internet business continues to maintain a strong momentum. According to the third-quarter financial report of 2024 released by Xiaomi, Xiaomi's Internet business revenue reached 8.5 billion yuan, reaching a historical high, with a gross margin of 77.5%; its overseas Internet service revenue increased by 18.3% year-on-year to 2.7 billion yuan, also reaching a historical high, accounting for 32.5% of the total Internet service revenue.

Song Qiang, General Manager of Xiaomi International Internet Business Department, said: "With the core system capabilities, Xiaomi is committed to building a sustainable open ecosystem through innovation and cooperation, continuously improving the user experience, and creating a win-win situation with partners to establish the most stable cooperative relationship. We will always adhere to the concept of 'User-Centered' and the strategy of 'Grow with Xiaomi', and work hand in hand with users and partners to jointly shape the future of overseas mobile Internet services."