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Xiaomi founder Lei Jun touts personal resilience as cooling economy hits smartphone business

  • Lei Jun, the co-founder and chief executive of Xiaomi, gave an hour-long motivational speech during a product launch event on Thursday
  • His attempt to highlight his personal strength comes as Xiaomi tries to prove its resilience under broader economic headwinds

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Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder and chief executive under the company’s logo. Photo: Bloomberg
Lei Jun, the co-founder and chief executive of Xiaomi and known among fans as “China’s Steve Jobs”, gave an hour-long motivational speech during a product launch event on Thursday, recounting his past struggles as a serial entrepreneur, as the smartphone giant faces growing challenges amid economic headwinds and logistics disruptions.
“The world has undergone tremendous change in the past three years, which has had a profound impact on our lives and work,” Lei said in his “annual speech”, a yearly tradition that started in 2020, when he recounted the now-familiar growth story of Xiaomi to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

“Many people are feeling confused, and even anxious, in the face of these continuous and huge changes.”

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What's behind Xiaomi's meteoric rise?

What's behind Xiaomi's meteoric rise?

The 52-year-old billionaire went on to describe his setbacks in past ventures, including his employment as the general manager of software company Kingsoft’s Beijing operations during the 1990s.

At first, Lei had trouble selling the firm’s products, which were meant to challenge Microsoft in the Chinese market. Amid slow sales, Kingsoft could barely afford to pay its employees, at which point it reached a “life-and-death moment”, Lei said.

To find out what went wrong, Lei worked temporarily as a salesman at a Kingsoft store in Beijing’s tech hub of Zhonguancun. During the seven-day stint, he learned that many customers did not know how to use computers without instructions.

Based on Lei’s experience, Kingsoft developed a new software called “Introduction to Computers” and other user-friendly products, which were well-received and helped turn around the company’s fortunes.

more user-friendly versions of its software, which were well-received and helped turn around the company’s fortunes.

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