Xiaomi has discreetly halted its financial services in India approximately three years after introducing payment and loan applications in the global market. By doing so, Xiaomi is withdrawing from what experts think is a potential worth $1 trillion.
This information initially came from two anonymous sources of TechCrunch who are familiar with the situation.
No More Mobile Apps
The Chinese multinational corporation has removed its Mi Pay and Mi Credit mobile applications from the country's Play Store, as well as the company's own app store.
In addition, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the industry organization in charge of the UPI payments network, has removed Mi Pay from its list of authorized UPI apps.
The NPCI did not provide a response when TechCrunch asked for comment.
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Xiaomi's Response
The unexpected shutdown of the financial services sector is a significant setback for the company.
Xiaomi India dominates the smartphone market in the country. It has aggressively extended its product offerings to enhance revenues as the tech giant's hardware division maintains razor-thin profit margins.
"As part of the annual strategic assessment activity and as a response to enhanced focus on our core business services, we closed the Mi Financial Services in March 2022," the representative from Xiaomi India told TechCrunch.
"In a short span of [four] years, we were able to connect and support thousands of customers. We are working with our partners and supporting our consumers during this process."
In the end, why Xiaomi halted banking services in India remains unknown. However, the decision arrived when India's central bank recommended stricter lending laws, including what data they may access on a customer's phone and more disclosures about their credit arrangement.
Background
In March 2019, Xiaomi introduced Mi Pay to the Indian market. According to statements made by corporate officials at the time, the app had already gathered more than 20 million registered users in the nation by that point.
Later in the year, the business released a program called Mi Credit. With this app, clients could borrow anywhere from $70 to $1,400 at interest rates that were quite modest. It granted loans to users via partners in a matter of minutes after accessing their phone records and text messages to check for transaction information and other facts to establish their eligibility.
In August 2022, Manu Jain, the CEO of Xiaomi India at the time, said to various media sources that the company's goal with the Mi Credit and Mi Pay applications was to become one of the major players in the financial tech market in India. He stated that the firm saw India as the second largest market for Mi Credit after China.
Moreover, Jain claimed that the company was considering offering gold loans, credit line cards, and insurance to South Asian customers.
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Written by Trisha Kae Andrada
