Digital Theory: Why Xiaomi is entering the female market with its "feminine" CC series

It is hard to imagine that Xiaomi, which has always focused on cost-effectiveness, would actually "feminize" and release a "high-priced, low-spec" (compared to Xiaomi's previous products) female mobile phone product. This makes it difficult for some people familiar with Xiaomi to accept.

On June 21, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun sorted out Xiaomi's product line, which is divided into two major parts:

Xiaomi has three series

(1) Xiaomi digital series, Xiaomi 9 / Xiaomi 9SE

(2) Xiaomi MIX series, a super-artistic business flagship

(3) The new CC series is a trendy mobile phone for young people around the world.

As for Redmi, the product line has not been announced. We only know that it focuses on high quality, extreme cost-effectiveness, and focuses on the e-commerce market.

Among them, Lei Jun unveiled the competitors of the new CC series, directly targeting the R, X and Nova series of rivals. Anyone who has a little knowledge of the Chinese smartphone market knows that the R, X and nova series mentioned by Lei Jun refer to OPPO's Reno series, vivo's X series and Huawei's nova series. The products of these three series of product lines are all aimed at the female market.

Among Xiaomi's three product lines, why did Lei Jun choose one of the CC series product lines to enter the female market? In my opinion, there are mainly the following reasons:

Imitate competitors: Huawei currently has the largest domestic market share. Its product lines are divided as follows: the Enjoy series focuses on the mid-to-low-end, the P series focuses on photography, the nova series is positioned in the female market, the Mate series is aimed at the business market, and the Maimang series is mainly promoted through operator channels. These five series of products have outstanding features and correspond to different groups of people.

As the saying goes, "When you see a virtuous person, you should aspire to be like him; when you see an unvirtuous person, you should reflect on yourself." Although Xiaomi is a domestic mobile phone giant, it ranks somewhat low in the entire Chinese smartphone market, making it difficult to achieve Lei Jun's strategy of "stabilizing the third place and aiming for the first place."

According to the Q1 2019 China Smartphone Market Statistics Report released by third-party market research firm Counterpoint, the overall shipments of domestic smartphones in the first quarter of this year continued to be less than 100 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 7% and a month-on-month decrease of 12%. The report shows that Huawei, vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Apple ranked in the top five, with market shares of 29%, 20%, 19%, 11%, and 7%, respectively.

Xiaomi's market share fell by 21% compared with the same period last year, and its market share barely exceeded 10%, but the gap with the TOP3 has further widened. Xiaomi needs to adjust the company's product line, so it followed the TOP1 Huawei, sorted out its product line, and prepared to go.

Expanding the user base: MobData, a third-party panoramic data service platform, recently released the 2018 Q3 Chinese smartphone market report, in which it profiled users of mainstream mobile phone brands.

The report states that male consumers are in an absolute majority among Xiaomi's user groups, accounting for as high as 64.1%. This shows that Xiaomi is a veritable "male mobile phone brand", which means that Xiaomi has great room for development in the female mobile phone market.

It is worth mentioning that it is much easier to make mobile phones for women than for boys. The picture below vividly illustrates the difference between boys and girls in buying mobile phones. To launch a mobile phone that will make girls fall in love with it, it only needs to have a good-looking appearance and powerful selfie function, while boys are very picky.

Xiaomi is well aware of the differences in how men and women buy mobile phones, so the new CC series has enhanced camera and appearance. The 32-megapixel high-definition camera, Meitu selfie algorithm, White Lover color scheme, and fashionable packaging design are enough to show that Xiaomi's CC series is completely aimed at girls.

As the Chinese smartphone market has entered a period of inventory, it is a wise decision for Xiaomi to use the CC series to win the hearts of female users.

As for whether Xiaomi, which has a strong label of "male mobile phone brand", can succeed in suddenly "feminizing" itself to expand its female user base, that remains to be seen. Judging from the fact that Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun himself went to the girls' base Xiaohongshu to promote the Xiaomi CC series, Xiaomi is serious about entering the women's mobile phone market.