Xiaomi dismisses fundraising rumors

At the consumer electronics expo CES in Las Vegas, Xiaomi’s Chief Financial Officer Shou Zi Chew dismissed speculation that the Beijing-based firm could be raising additional funds in response to a challenging year in which Xiaomi has lost smartphone market share to competitors. Xiaomi, one of China’s most valuable startups, with a valuation of $46 billion, soared to the top of China’s smartphone market in 2014 by selling sleekly designed smartphones online to cut costs and building buzz with viral marketing. But in the past two years, it has been overrun by local rivals Oppo, Vivo and Huawei Technologies, which used traditional advertising blitzes to win consumers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Xiaomi’s smartphone market share in China, its biggest market, fell to 8.7% in the third quarter of 2016 from 15.9% a year earlier.