Millet overseas battle Road to borrow local "rice noodles"

Millet global vice President Hugo Baba Sina Technology news Beijing Time December 18 morning message, Hugo Barra, a recently-appointed Millet global vice-president, said the company, which has been successful in China with its best-selling model, hopes to seek help from overseas "rice noodles" in the process of international expansion. 1069.86,-3.12,-0.29%, a former Google executive, switched to millet this October. He said the company had started selling handsets in Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent months, and could also land in Southeast Asia next month, but he did not give a timetable. The Millet program uses local "rice noodles" to promote its products and overcome language and border barriers, Barak said. "We have fans all over the world," he said, "and we want to be influential around the globe." "Millet, founded by Lei in 2010, is still a private company, and they have achieved huge sales with a strategy of low price and high distribution." The company's Millet 3 flagship is priced at $326, less than half the apple (554.99,-2.51,-0.45%) and Samsung flag-ship models. Millet received a 10 billion dollar valuation in the latest round of financing, which is expected to sell 20 million handsets in 2013. The operating system of Millet is currently available in two languages, which can be downloaded to computers all over the world, so that technology enthusiasts can experience the interface of Millet without buying the company's mobile phone. In order to develop their own fan group, Millet allows users and fans to directly propose operating system update recommendations. They have a free software update every week. The model has attracted 5 million registered users to the Chinese-language forum for Millet and more than 100,000 users in the English forum, Barak said. He revealed that Millet has a forum in 21 countries or regions in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, China. Some loyal users will not only report vulnerabilities, offer new feature recommendations, but also help the company translate the system into local languages. The model is useful for attracting users, says Barak. He said that when the millet mobile phone in other countries, these fans will become the first batch of users to help millet publicity, and even become their brand ambassador. Analysts suspect that this model of crowdsourcing improvement in millet is hard to work in overseas markets because of the relatively low profile of the company's international market. In recent months, Millet has been selling products in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, but their Chinese-language services are already available locally. Bryan Wang, a Blaine Wang analyst at the US market research firm, said that overseas "rice noodles" may not be as much as mainland China or Taiwan, so they can only attract users at low prices. Barak said the company might follow China's Taiwan expansion strategy, which has largely become an "experiment" for the company. They first accept orders through the Taiwan website and ship directly. A distribution centre was then built and an event was organized to invite 400 users to the scene to provide software advice and to hold a Kara OK and games and other recreational activities. The event was helped by many forum users. "We have made positive attempts and will continue to look for ways to expand aggressively in the future," he said. "said Barak. Millet did not disclose China's Taiwan sales figures and long-term sales targets. The company will then look to Southeast Asian markets because of its large population and its relatively close proximity to China, it is likely to attract a lot of users with Low-cost handsets, Barak said. Blaine Wang of Forrester says Millet may have to adjust its overseas business model to make enough profits to support overseas expansion by adjusting its selling price. The company is still maintaining a low profit strategy, hoping to eventually make a profit with accessories, services and content. Barak admits that overseas promotion is not easy, but he believes the current model can be applied to overseas markets. (PEI)