WEIBO – Praise For Cook’s Coming Out; Xiaomi Glows In Rankings
Global gadget leader Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its chief Chinese imitator Xiaomi have been filling the online airwaves these last few days, though for very different reasons. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was drawing praise and admiration from a wide range of tech executives on their microblogs, following his widely publicized editorial in which he disclosed that he is gay.
Meantime, a number of top officials from the talkative Xiaomi were also talking up a storm, which verged on gloating, as their company once again poached another high-profile Silicon Valley talent. They also had plenty to say as their high-flying company claimed the undisputed spot as the world’s third largest smartphone maker, behind only sector leaders Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple.
One common theme in this week’s microblogging chatter is the fixation on Apple by Chinese tech execs, and a growing fixation on Xiaomi as the company reportedly seeks a new funding round that reportedly values it at up to $40 billion. Of course it’s worth pointing out that most of the buzz about Xiaomi still comes from people within the company itself. But astute observers can also detect a certain degree of envy among tech executives at other firms at the amount of buzz Xiaomi is able to generate.
Let’s begin the weekly round-up with the serious subject of Apple’s Tim Cook, whose name has become a fixture in global technology headlines these last few days after his disclosure about his sexuality in a magazine editorial. Even before the disclosure, Cook’s name was already a recent staple in the Chinese media. Last month he visited China for the second time this year (previous post), and just last week he confirmed that Apple might consider a tie-up with Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) in the electronic payment space. (previous post)
Chinese tech executives were mostly full of admiration for Cook following his disclosure that he’s gay, with nearly all of the posts quite serious and solemn in tone. But at least one executive from e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) was able to take the situation a bit more lightly, using the occasion to take a playful poke at Xiaomi without appearing disrespectful of the situation.
The list of executives expressing their admiration was led by high-tech elder statesman Li Dongsheng, chairman of leading TV maker TCL (HKEx: 1070; Shenzhen: 000100), who expressed his respect for Cook’s bravery and candidness. (microblog post) Fu Sheng , CEO of security software maker Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM), also voiced his support for Cook and the right of individuals to make such decisions about their personal lives. (microblog post)
Meantime, JD.com’s Ye Changhua tried to tastefully diffuse some of the gravity of the situation with his poke at Xiaomi. Ye, who supervises JD.com’s wireless sales division, referenced another recent controversy that has seen Xiaomi defend itself over accusations that it copies its phone designs from Apple. He took that story a step further, wondering if Xiaomi might now copy its role model by having one of its own top executives coming out and declare he’s gay. (microblog post)
On that note, let’s move on to the latest buzz on Xiaomi itself, which is coming mostly from company executives as it reportedly seeks more funding that would value it at $40 billion. (Chinese article) That would mark quite a large increase from just a year ago, when Xiaomi raised a hefty $2 billion in a funding round that valued it at $10 billion.
Xiaomi’s own high image of itself got a big boost last week when new reports from several major research houses revealed the company took over the undisputed spot as the world’s third largest smartphone maker in this year’s third quarter, behind only Apple and Samsung. Xiaomi officials had plenty to say about that accomplishment. They were also quite happy to toot the company’s horn by chatting up the latest defection to Xiaomi by a Silicon Valley high-riser. In this case, US-based Donovan Sung left a high-level position at music streaming site Spotify to joint the Chinese company.
Xiaomi’s talkative CEO Lei Jun was mum on the subject of Tim Cook, but made an indirect reference in one of his microblog posts to his company’s rapid rise to take the number-three smartphone spot in the third quarter. He jokingly asked “What’s going on?” in a post, referring to recent remarks from South Korea that blamed its recent weak exports partly on rising sales from Chinese companies like Xiaomi. (microblog post) Techies will know that remark refers to recent woes from Korean exporting juggernaut Samsung, whose smartphone sales have suffered lately due to competition from Chinese brands.
Meantime, the trio of Xiaomi co-founders that included Lei Jun, along with Lin Bin and Wang Chuan, were all full of praise for themselves and their company for poaching Donovan Sung away from Spotify. Sung’s defection follows the higher profile addition to the company last year of Hugo Barra, who left another high-ranking Silicon Valley position at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to join Xiaomi as head of international sales. I won’t repeat the content of their self-congratulatory posts here, but anyone who wants to read them can click directly on their names above.
