Xiaomi launches online personal loan service Mi Credit in India
04 Dec 2019
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Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp has launched its online lending service in India to enter the underserved credit market in the country and widening its offering of financial products in the country.
The Chinese major also on Tuesday formally launched its lending platform, Mi Credit, in India, wherein individuals can avail up to ?1 lakh loan. Xiaomi also announced plans to introduce more financial products as it expands in the world’s biggest web services markets.
Xiaomi’s Mi Credit connects smartphone users with lending firms, mostly in the non-banking sector, giving them access to loans of up to Rs100,000.
Mi Pay is a UPI-based payment app available on MIUI (Xiaomi's operating system) phones, and can also be downloaded from GetApps and Google Play Store
"We have been running pilots in different forms and this is the first formal launch. Mi Credit is an online curated marketplace for lending to offer the best personal loans...People can get up to ?1 lakh of loan and the process takes minimal time," Xiaomi vice president and India managing director Manu Jain said.
Xiaomi has NBFCs or fintechs such as Aditya Birla Finance Ltd, Money View, EarlySalary, Zestmoney and CreditVidya as primary lending partners for Mi Credit.
Xiaomi has, until now, been operating Mi Credit platform on a pilot basis. It had also, last year, partnered with KreditBee to offer loans of up to ?1 lakh. However, Jain aid, KreditBee is not among the list of partners in the current format.
Xiaomi is already offering payment app Mi Pay, another UPI-based financial product in India.
Mi Pay is a UPI-based payment app available on MIUI (Xiaomi's operating system) phones, and can also be downloaded from GetApps and Google Play Store.
It was launched in India in March 2018, and has over 20 million registered users.
Hong Feng, co-founder and senior vice president, Xiaomi Corporation and chairman and CEO, Xiaomi Finance, said the company's Mi Finance business started four years ago in China.
"Today, we have over 300 million Mi Fans in our global community and having understood their consumption behaviour - it is one of the strengths we aim to leverage to build a stronger Mi Finance business globally," he said, adding that he was confident of India becoming the largest market outside of China for financial solutions.
Feng said Xiaomi offers a variety of financial solutions like wealth management and insurance products in China, and is keen on bringing these to India as well in collaboration with various partners.
Jain said the company is looking at bringing more financial products in India but it would depend on factors like its current financial services business being stable, the ecosystem around being mature and finding the right partners.
The company has a 20-member team that is working with the headquarters to bring these financial solutions to the Indian market.
He pointed out that the opportunity in online credit lending in India is estimated to touch ?70 lakh crore by 2023, as per a BCG report.
Citing a CIBIL report, Xiaomi said over ?4 lakh crore worth of personal loans are outstanding from nearly 1.9 crore customers, with each user accounting for almost ?2 lakh outstanding amount.
Of these 1.9 crore customers, majority tend to avail it for medical emergencies followed by shopping, wedding, travel and education purposes.
"Mi Credit has been built as the first personal loan choice for aspirational young professionals and millennials. Mi Credit solves most challenges associated with the traditional lending industry with a 100 per cent digital experience," Jain said.
