Xiaomi, a Chinese IT company, is scared. According to market research companies Omdia and Canalis, Xiaomi ranked second in the second quarter of this year with 17% of global smartphone market share, beating Apple (14%). The gap between Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics is only 2 percentage points. In June, it ranked first in global market share (CounterPoint Research).

In late May, Xiaomi Vice President Lu Weaving said, "It will surpass Apple in the second quarter and become the world's second-largest company." "We expect that Samsung Electronics will be able to surpass Samsung Electronics by 2023 at the earliest by 2023."

If you look at Xiaomi recently, it is hard to dismiss her as a bluff. Xiaomi's global market share increased from 2% in 2013 to 11% last year. During the same period, Xiaomi's smartphone shipments increased from 18.7 million units to 145 million units. Its sales have grown from 31.6 billion yuan (about 5.63 trillion won) to 245.9 billion yuan (about 43.84 trillion won). In the meantime, Samsung Electronics' market share decreased from 30% to 19%, and Apple was stuck in the box of 13 to 16%. "Xiaomi has entered more than 100 countries and overseas business accounts for almost half of the total revenue," said Chairman Rei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi shortly after becoming the second-largest global market.

Xiaomi's lineup of smartphone products is said to be tight without any water leaks. It has a variety of products ranging from ultra-low-priced phones (Hongmi 20X) that are priced at 100,000 won to free-ium phones that are priced at 1 million won. In March, it released a foldable phone called 'MIMIMIXFOLD'. It is planning to release two to three new foldable phones in the second half of this year. In particular, most of them overlap with Samsung Electronics' price range. This is why some analysts say that Xiaomi's target is Samsung Electronics rather than Apple.

It is said that premium phones, which used to be weaknesses, have also been settled. Xiaomi released its flagship phone (strategic phone) US11 series with Snapdragon 888 chipset earlier this year. Counterpoint Research analyzed, "With the combination of premium and low-priced sectors, Xiaomi was able to achieve its biggest smartphone sales in the second quarter."

"Technology has improved rapidly in all areas, including cameras, displays and batteries," said an industry official who wanted to remain anonymous. "Some technologies are being followed by Samsung Electronics and Apple." In fact, Xiaomi introduced the world's first 180 million-pixel mobile phone camera and is leading the UDC technology to hide cameras under the screen. It also unveiled a technology that can fully charge batteries in just eight minutes.

Investments in R&D (R&D) such as investing about 10 billion yuan (1.78 trillion won) last year alone are paying off. "This year, R&D investment will exceed 13 billion yuan. We will hire more than 5,000 additional engineers," Chairman Ray Jun said.

Xiaomi almost went to the "Huawei Road," which was hit by U.S. sanctions. However, he escaped the crisis by playing head-to-head-to-head. In January this year, the U.S. government blacklisted Xiaomi on the grounds that she was linked to the Chinese military. Xiaomi immediately filed a complaint against the U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., in May this year, drawing a ruling from the federal court, "Void the designation of a Chinese military company and lift restrictions on the purchase and stock ownership of Xiaomi products." Shortly after the ruling, Reuters reported, "The U.S. government agreed that it would not raise any further objections to Xiaomi." Industry sources said, "Xiaomi has wings."