We might not see Xiaomi go public until 2025

With valuations of $68 billion and $46 billion, respectively, Uber and Xiaomi are the two most-valuable startups in the world at the moment, which means there’s a lot of anticipation surrounding their IPOs. Unfortunately, both companies have refused to give us anything more than an extremely vague indication of when they intend to go public. The closest thing we have to an official date is a statement from Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Tianjin, who says that the company should go public sometime between now and 2025.

Chinese phone maker Xiaomi might launch its initial public offering (IPO) as late as 2025, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said on Tuesday at a session at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Tianjin. He explained that Xiaomi’s focus at present is on the expansion of offline stores and the development of new products. Already valued at USD 45 billion, Xiaomi had previously responded to queries about a potential Xiaomi IPO with very vague answers. At the forum, however, Lei announced that “It may take at least 15 years for Xiaomi to launch an IPO since its founding in 2010, because we believe that Xiaomi must first earn the heartfelt trust of our customers.” A selling point for Xiaomi smartphones that they maintain a cheaper price. Yet as the Chinese market for smartphone matures, Xiaomi’s smartphone growth prospects are beginning to taper off. Data from market research company IDC shows that Xiaomi smartphones had a shipment increase of merely 22.8% in 2015, down from increases of over 100% in previous years. In addition, it was no longer among the top five global smartphone makers in 2015.