Xiaomi's $160 Redmi 2 smartphone, launching in Brazil, will be company's first sold outside Asia and first manufactured outside China
Loretta Chao / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
Xiaomi is taking the Redmi 2 abroad: the same handset that debuted at roughly $112 in China this January now lands in Brazil at $160, marking both the company's first phone sale outside Asia and its first built outside China. The move follows a year of scale — shipments up 227% to more than 61M in 2014 — and an announced plan to expand into more countries.
The Brazil launch also tests the pivot Xiaomi described to the Wall Street Journal in June: rethinking its e-commerce-only sales model for markets where online-first distribution doesn't translate. Notably, the US remains accessories-only via Mi.com — phones are entering through Latin America first.
First-order effects
- Brazilian buyers gain access to a $160 Snapdragon-powered LTE handset, though at a $48 premium over the phone's China price — the cost of selling it abroad.
- The Redmi 2 becomes Xiaomi's first device manufactured outside China, shifting part of its supply chain onshore for the Brazilian market.
Second-order effects
- Local budget-Android rivals in Brazil now compete against Xiaomi's hardware-margin pricing, pressuring them on spec-per-dollar rather than brand.
- If the Brazil build-out works, the manufacturing-plus-retail playbook differs sharply from the accessories-only approach planned for the US Mi.com marketplace, forcing Xiaomi to run two distinct go-to-market models.
Third-order effects
- A successful Brazil entry would make locally assembled devices the template for Xiaomi's next markets, decoupling growth from exports out of China — a structural break with how it reached 61M shipments.
- Chinese handset makers' expansion path increasingly runs through emerging markets before the US, reversing the usual Western-market-first sequencing for consumer tech brands.
The trend: China's smartphone champions are moving from export-led volume to localized manufacturing and retail in emerging markets, with Brazil as Xiaomi's first proving ground.