Smartphone maker Xiaomi said its revenue rose 49.1 percent to 50.85 billion yuan or $7.32 billion in the third quarter of 2018 — driven by robust sales in India and Europe.
Xiaomi’s smartphone division grew revenue 36.1 percent while its internet service division increased 85.5 percent. Phones made up 64.6 percent of total sales, while internet services made up 9.3 percent.

Xiaomi’s fastest-growing markets are India and achieved success with its budget Redmi phone series. It entered Europe in 2017 with launches in Russia and Spain. Earlier this month it released its flagship Mi 8 Pro device in Britain, Reuters reported.

The firm has added new brands to its smartphone portfolio to target niche consumers in India and other overseas markets.

Mo Jia at research firm Canalys, said attempts to sell expensive devices requires changing its brand perception. “It’s still very hard for Xiaomi to change its perception of being a low-end device manufacturer as the majority of its smartphone shipments are the Redmi series.”

Xiaomi also aims to transform itself from a smartphone firm into a software company. As the firm prepared for its IPO, founder Lei Jun touted internet services – namely advertisements placed on the firm’s in-house apps – as its future and key differentiator from other handset brands.

Xiaomi said in an earnings call that its profit for the three months through September was 2.48 billion yuan or $357.23 million versus an 11 billion yuan loss in the same period a year earlier. Operating profit of Xiaomi fell 38.4 percent to 3.59 billion yuan in Q3 2018.

Xiaomi, along with fellow low-cost handset makers Oppo and Vivo, accounted for around a quarter of the global smartphone market in the first half of 2018, showed data from researcher IDC.

Xiaomi raised $4.72 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) in June, valuing the firm at about $54 billion.