Xiaomi upgrades its ecosystem strategy with sub-brand

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun introduced the brand Mijia at a media conference held in Beijing on March 29, 2016.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's top smartphone maker Xiaomi has reshuffled its ecosystem strategy by launching a new brand, Mijia, to fully explore the smart home sector, founder Lei Jun announced at a media conference held in Beijing Tuesday.

The move is aimed at differentiating products made by Xiaomi itself and its ecosystem partners, according to Lei. He predicted that products sold by these companies via its own e-commerce platform mi.com would exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) this year.