Chinese Smartphone Maker Xiaomi’s Revenue and Profit Slides

This photograph shows the Xiaomi logo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2023. (AFP)
This photograph shows the Xiaomi logo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2023. (AFP)
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Chinese Smartphone Maker Xiaomi’s Revenue and Profit Slides

This photograph shows the Xiaomi logo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2023. (AFP)
This photograph shows the Xiaomi logo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2023. (AFP)

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp on Friday reported a record drop in fourth-quarter revenue as the company weathered a slowdown in consumption and disruptions due to China's COVID-19 curbs.

Sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached 66.05 billion yuan ($9.6 billion), down 22.8% from 85.58 billion yuan a year earlier.

The numbers were slightly ahead of analyst expectations, but they mark the fourth consecutive revenue drop for the company, and its steepest on record yet.

Net income fell to 1.46 billion over the period, down 67.3% from 4.473 billion yuan a year earlier.

The company's revenue for 2022 was 280.04 billion yuan, a drop of 14.7%, while net income came in at 8.52 billion yuan, down 61.4%. Both figures fell short of analyst expectations.

Overall consumption in China dragged on most product categories in the fourth quarter, as the abrupt lifting of strict COVID-19 curbs led to a rapid spread in infections across the country.

All major smartphone brands experienced a sales slump in China over the period, based on research firm Canalys. Xiaomi, however, took the largest hit with shipments dropping 37% year on year, the Canalys data showed.



Google Reportedly Weighs Large Data Center in Vietnam

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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Google Reportedly Weighs Large Data Center in Vietnam

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, US, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Alphabet's Google is considering building a large data center in Vietnam, a person briefed on the plans said, in what would be the first such investment by a big US technology company in the Southeast Asian nation.
Google is weighing setting up a "hyperscale" data center close to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern economic hub, the source said, declining to be named because the information is not public.
The investment, the size of which the source did not specify, would be a shot in the arm for Vietnam which has so far failed to attract major overseas capital in data centers due to its patchy infrastructure, with large tech companies preferring to house their centers in rival nations in the region.
According to Reuters, it was not clear how quickly Google will reach a decision on an investment but the source said internal talks are on and the data center could be ready in 2027.
A spokesperson for Google declined to comment about the data center plan.
Hyperscale centers are the largest in the industry, with power consumption usually similar to that of a big city.
A hyperscale data center with power consumption capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) could cost between $300 million and $650 million, according to estimates based on data published by real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle in a report this year on data centers in Vietnam.
Google's move was motivated by the large number of its domestic and foreign cloud services clients in Vietnam and the country's expanding digital economy, the source said, noting the Southeast Asian nation was one of the fastest-growing markets for YouTube, Google's popular online video sharing platform.
Currently the top data center operators in Vietnam, based on computing space, are industrial investment firm IDC Becamex and telecommunications company VNPT, both Vietnamese state-owned enterprises, according to an internal market report by an industrial park in Vietnam seen by Reuters.
The Nikkei reported in May that Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba was considering building a data center in Vietnam. Alibaba did not reply to a request for comment.