Wang Teng Succeeds Zhu Lei as Head of Xiaomi’s China Sales Operation Department

Zhu Lei, General Manager of the Sales Operation Department 1 of Xiaomi Group China, was recently succeeded by Wang Teng, a younger official born in the 1980s who now directly reports to Lu Weibing and remains in the position of the department’s vice general manager, Chinese media outlet LatePost reported on Wednesday.

Founded in late 2018, the Sales Operation Department 1 takes charge of Xiaomi smartphone’s production, sales and coordination between online and offline distribution.

Zhu Lei, a Xiaomi veteran, left for personal reasons. Wang Teng, who previously served as the product director of Xiaomi’s sub-brand Redmi, began to co-manage Zhu’s department when he was appointed deputy about half a year ago, LatePost reported, citing an individual close to the company.

Wang once worked for Xiaomi’s domestic rival Oppo as the product strategy manager and a project member of the firm’s premium flagship Find lineup. He joined in Xiaomi in the second half of 2016 when the company was at a low ebb and its shipment once dropped by more than 30% and fell out of the top five brands. He worked in the smartphone department where Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun at that time took charge of the smartphone business and supply chain, then he was transferred to Redmi’s team as lead product worker in March, 2020.

Xiaomi‘s total mobile phone sales surpassed Apple in the second quarter of this year, ranking second in the world for the first time. Furthermore, the company just launched its 11T series mobile phones for the global market last night. However, in the Chinese market, Xiaomi is facing considerable pressure. CINNO Research, a market research organization, released a report saying that Honor has surpassed Xiaomi in mobile phone sales for the first time in July, ranking third in China. Oppo and Vivo won the first and second place, respectively.

SEE ALSO: Mobile Phone Shipments Down 11% Year-on-Year in Q2: Huawei Misses Top Five While Honor Squeezes In

In order to cope with the competition, Xiaomi has started a new round of price reduction. The starting prices of several models released by Xiaomi this year have dropped by 6%-10%. At the same time, Xiaomi is accelerating the expansion of offline channels. A person close to the Xiaomi House business said that the number of Xiaomi‘s offline stores is expected to exceed 10,000 within the year. In April, the number had already exceeded 5,000.