Xiaomi Corp
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2022-Q3

from 0
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Xiaomi 2022 Third Quarter Results Announcement Conference Call. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Ms. Anita Chan, Head, Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Please go ahead, madam.

A
Anita Chan
executive

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to investor conference call hosted by Xiaomi Corporation regarding the company's 2022 third quarter results.

Before we start the call, we would like to remind you that the call may include forward-looking statements, which are underlined by a number of risks and uncertainties and may not realize in the near future for various reasons. Information about general market conditions is coming from a variety of sources outside of Xiaomi.

This presentation also contains some unaudited non-IFRS financial measures that should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for the company's financial prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Joining us on the call today are Mr. Xiang Wang, Partner and President of Xiaomi Corporation; and Mr. Alain Lam, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Xiaomi Corporation and Chairman of Airstar Digital Technology. To start, Mr. Wang will share recent strategic update of the company. Thereafter, Mr. Lam will review the business and financial performance for the third quarter of 2022. Following that, we will move on to the Q&A session.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Wang.

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Thank you. Thank you, Anita. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. Since 2022, our whole industry faced many challenges, including rising global inflation, foreign exchange fluctuation, a complex geopolitical environment and COVID resurgences in Mainland China. These challenges have not changed materially in the third quarter of 2022 and have continued to impact overall market demand significantly.

The global smartphone market declined nearly 10% year-over-year in the first 3 quarters of the year. And in this quarter, global smartphone shipment is the lowest point compared to the third quarter over the past 9 years. Despite the challenging environment, due to our global scale, our long operating histories in global markets and our brand and channel advantages, our business remained resilient.

In the third quarter, our total revenue just -- our total revenue, adjusted net profit, smartphone shipments and the smartphone margin all achieved growth quarter-over-quarter, more so than any other time. In times of difficulty, it is vital to invest in our long-term capabilities to lay the foundation for high-quality, sustainable growth.

With this in mind, we continue to advance our business strategies and strengthen our foundation. Our third quarter total revenue reached 72 -- RMB 70.5 billion with smartphone revenue reaching CNY 42.5 billion. IoT and lifestyle products revenue of CNY 19.1 billion and Internet Services revenue of CNY 7.1 billion.

Meanwhile, we have been actively investing in advancing our smart EV and other new initiatives. Our adjusted net profit reached CNY 2.1 billion in the third quarter of 2022, which included CNY 829 million of expenses related to smart EV and other new initiatives.

In the complex and ever-changing overseas market, we cooperate openly with our global partners, leveraging our global scale to mitigate single market risks. In the third quarter, we maintained our #3 position in global smartphone shipments with market share of 14%. And in Europe, we ranked #2 with market share growing year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter to 23%. In this quarter, more than 75% of our smartphone shipped to overseas market. And our smartphone market share ran top 3 in 52 markets and among the top 5 in 64 markets.

We further strengthened our position in the premium smartphone market, and our newly launched premium smartphones have been very popular. Xiaomi 12S Series and Xiaomi MIX Fold 2 received over 98% and 99% positive ratings, respectively, on JD.com.

In this quarter, in Mainland China, our smartphone market share in RMB 4,000 to RMB 5,000 price segment grow year-over-year of 5 percentage points and grow year-over-year of 2 percentage points in RMB 6,000 and above, demonstrating the competitiveness of our premium products.

We continue to invest in R&D and strengthen our long-term core competitiveness. In the third quarter, our R&D expenses reached CNY 4.1 billion, an increase of 26% year-over-year. Among over 30,000 employees at Xiaomi, nearly half are R&D personnel.

In terms of smart EV and other new initiatives, we have invested over CNY 1.8 billion in the past 3 quarters. Our smart EV business is advancing smoothly and has established an R&D team of more than 1,800 professionals. We believe the global total addressable market for smart EV exceeds trillions of dollars, while the current market is still very fragmented and very early in its development leaving plenty of room for us.

We have been actively promoting sustainable corporation development. In August 2022, Forbes China released its first China ESG 50 report to recognize companies that follow best practices in ESG and listed Xiaomi among its China ESG 50 list. In October 2022, Xiaomi was selected into Forbes' world best employers list for the second consecutive year.

In addition, we participated in education equality initiatives in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, providing digital education equipment to local students. We believe it is necessary for us to spread ahead social responsibilities even against macroeconomic headwinds.

In the coming new year, despite the challenges at home and aboard, we remain confident in our ability to seek certainty in times of uncertainty, thanks to our relentless investment in our core capabilities, our global scale advantage and our strong cash resources. More importantly, we will remain agile and strategically balance profitability and scale while improving operational efficiency.

Meanwhile, we will commit to investing in R&D and the long-term driving forces to lay the foundation for healthy and high-quality sustainable growth. And together with all of you, we will forge ahead against the headwinds to weather every season as no winter lasts forever and no spring skips its turn.

With that, I will hand it over to our CFO, Alain, to discuss our third quarter results in greater detail. Alain, please?

A
Alain Lam
executive

Thank you, Xiang. Good evening, everyone. Now let me go into more details of our third quarter performance. As Xiang Wang mentioned, in the third quarter, our performance remained resilient despite the ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. Our revenue reached RMB 70.5 billion and adjusted net profit was RMB 2.1 billion this quarter, which included expenses of RMB 829 million for smart EV and other new initiatives. Our revenue as well as our adjusted net profit both increased quarter-over-quarter.

Our three business segments remained healthy. We ranked #3 in terms of global smartphone shipments. The number of connected devices on our AIoT platform increased by more than 40% year-over-year, and the number of our MAU again hit record highs, reaching 564 million globally and 141 million in Mainland China.

In the third quarter, our global smartphone shipment achieved market share of 13.6% and our smartphone shipment has increased sequentially over the past 2 quarters. We have continued to steadfastly execute our smartphone premiumization strategy and our newly launched smartphone models have earned widespread positive reviews.

In the third quarter in Mainland China, our premium smartphone shipments increased 14% year-over-year and our smartphone ASP increased 9% year-over-year. Xiaomi 12S Ultra, which was launched in July, and Xiaomi MIX Fold 2, which was launched in August, generated over 98% and 99% positive ratings respectively from JD.com.

During the Double 11 shopping festival, our cumulative paid GMV from all sales channels exceeded RMB 17 billion, and we ranked #1 among Android smartphones in terms of both sales volume as well as sales value on each of the major platforms, including Tmall, JD, Pinduoduo and Douyin. In the AIoT categories, we achieved 147 #1 rankings by sales volume or sales values on Tmall and JD.

We also continued to make steady progress in our off-line retail business despite the continued COVID-19 offering, which caused the temporary closures of many of our stores during this quarter. Our retail store GMV increased by 12% year-over-year during the festival, which included CNY 190 million GMV from our integrated online to offline business. Our integrated online to offline business includes on-land delivery and in-store pickups from our offline stores based on orders placed online.

We continue to increase our R&D investments to strengthen our core competitiveness. In the third quarter, R&D expenses reached RMB 4.1 billion, increasing 26% year-over-year. And the number of granted patents to us exceeded 29,000 globally. We continue to invest in our technology talent and the proportion of R&D personnel to total employees increased to 48%. Furthermore, Boston Consulting Group named Xiaomi as 1 among the 50 most innovative companies of 2022.

Now let's dive deeper into each segment, starting with smartphones. Ongoing macroeconomic headwinds continue to affect all smartphone industry demand. And this quarter, global smartphone shipment was the lowest third quarter shipments since 2014. Against this challenging backdrop, our global smartphone shipment increased by 2.8% quarter-over-quarter to 40.2 million units, achieving a second consecutive quarter of sequential growth. And our smartphone revenue reached RMB 42.5 billion.

We are committed to bringing cutting-edge technologies to the mass market at affordable prices. In October, we launched the Redmi Note 12 series and orders exceeded 350,000 units within the first hour of launch. Within this series, the Redmi Note 12 DISCOVERY EDITION is equipped with a 200 megapixel camera and a proprietary 210-watt hypercharge solution that can fully charge the smartphone in only 9 minutes further demonstrating our pioneering technology.

We also launched Xiaomi Civi 2 with lightweight and attractive design. It is our first smartphone equipped with dual ultra high-definition front cameras, which enhanced self-portraits and videos with natural realism and depth-of-field.

We continued to advance our overseas businesses and maintain leading positions in major global markets. In the third quarter of 2022, our smartphone shipment ranked among the top 3 in 52 markets and among the top 5 in 64 markets. This quarter, our market share improved year-over-year in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. In Europe, we ranked #2 with market share increasing 1.8 percentage point year-over-year to 23.3%. In the Middle East, we ranked #2 with 17.6% market share, an increase of 1.3 percentage points year-over-year. In the emerging markets, we ranked #3 in both Latin America and Africa.

Our global scale and competitive products have attracted more overseas carriers to partner with us. At the same time, we continue to deepen our relationships with existing carrier partners. In this quarter, our carrier channel market share in Europe increased by 1.7 percentage points year-over-year to 19.9%. And our carrier channel market share in Latin America increased by 1.5 percentage points year-over-year to 16%. Furthermore, our smartphone market share through carrier channels ranked top 3 in 38 overseas markets.

Let's look at the IoT business. Connected users and devices on our leading consumer AIoT platform continues to grow. As of September 30, the number of connected devices on our AIoT platform reached 558.3 million, up 40% year-over-year. The number of users with five or more connected AIoT devices reached 10.9 million, up over 35% year-over-year.

In September, MAU of our AI assistant grew 9% year-over-year, and MAU of our Mi Home app grew over 20% year-over-year. In this quarter, revenue from our AIoT business decreased 3.8% quarter-over-quarter to reach RMB 19.1 billion, primarily due to decrease in revenues from AIoT products, such as air conditioners, partially offset by increase in revenue of smart TVs and laptops.

Our smart TV business continued to maintain a leading position globally. In the third quarter, global shipments of our smart TV grew year-over-year to reach 3.3 million units against an overall industry decline. We maintained our top 5 global ranking, and overseas smart TV shipment achieved a quarterly high. Overseas shipments, excluding India grew over 40% year-over-year.

Our Smart Home Appliance business achieved robust growth in the third quarter of 2022 with revenue growing more than 70% year-over-year to achieve another record high. Our air conditioner shipments exceeded 1 million units, increasing over 70% year-over-year. Our refrigerated shipment exceeded 340,000 units, an increase of over 150% year-over-year, achieving a record high.

In October, we launched our first Redmi Pad product with a low blue light, high protection display, offering a comfortable viewing experience. During the same month, we launched Xiaomi Book Air 13, our first laptop with a screen that can be flipped 360 degrees to meet our users' needs in multiple scenarios.

We continue to maintain our lead in variable products. In the third quarter, our TWS earbud shipments ranked #3, and our variable band ranked #2 in Mainland China. We have been enhancing the connectivity between our wearable products and smartphones, which has made our premium wearable products more appealing and more competitive. In August, we launched our premium Xiaomi Buds 4 Pro and our premium Xiaomi Watch S1 Pro. Among the connected users of these two products, over 50% are users of our premium smartphones.

We continue to explore new blockbuster AIoT products. In September, we launched two energy-related IoT products. First, the Mijia Outdoor Power Supply 1,000Pro, which is equipped with a 1 kilowatt hour capacity and 1.8 kilowatt hour -- 1 kilowatt -- 1.8-kilowatt high-power output, satisfying the power needs of outdoor activities and home emergency use.

Second, we launched the Mijia Solar Panel 100 watts, which efficiently captures solar power in affordable portable design and is water and dustproof.

Now let's look at Internet Services. In this quarter, our global MAU reached CNY 564 million, an increase of CNY 78 million year-over-year. In Mainland China MAU reached CNY 141 million, an increase of CNY 14 million year-over-year. In addition, our global TV MAU exceeded CNY 54 million, all these metrics achieved record highs.

In the third quarter, our Internet Services revenue remained stable and reached RMB 7.1 billion, an increase of 1.4% quarter-over-quarter. While macroeconomic and industry-specific headwinds presented challenges, our global advertising and gaming revenue still achieved quarter-over-quarter growth. Notably, this year, our gaming business has achieved three consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth.

As our overseas user base continues to expand, our Overseas Internet Services revenue achieved another quarterly high of RMB 1.7 billion, up 17.2% year-over-year and accounted for a record high 24.2% of our total Internet Services revenue. Benefiting from diversified monetization channels, our advertising business in Mainland China and overseas both achieved quarter-over-quarter growth.

In Mainland China, revenue of brand and performance-based apps increased, driven by a more diversified advertiser base and higher monetization efficiency. Overseas, our performance-based advertising revenue and pre-installation revenue, both again hit record high, driven by different collaborations with global partners and strong content operators.

In the third quarter, our Mainland China TV Internet Services revenue reached another quarterly high, and accounted for 15% of Mainland China Internet Services revenue. As we further expanded our content offerings, our TV pay subscriber exceeded 5 million, providing an additional source of recurring revenue for our smart TV business.

Let's move on to more detailed financials now. In the third quarter, total revenue was RMB 70.5 billion, as mentioned before, and 50.5% came from overseas overall. Smartphone revenue was RMB 42.5 billion, IoT revenue was RMB 19.1 billion and Internet services revenue was RMB 7.1 billion.

In the third quarter of 2022, overall gross margin reached 16.6%. Smartphone gross margin increased quarter-over-quarter to 8.9% mainly due to improvement in gross profit margin in Mainland China. IoT gross margin decreased quarter-over-quarter to 13.5% mainly due to enhanced promotional efforts of our smart TVs overseas as well as increased impairment provision on our inventory. Internet Services gross margin decreased quarter-over-quarter, mainly due to decline in gross profit margin of our fintech business and higher revenue contribution from our gaming business.

In this quarter, our operating expense ratio decreased 0.3 percentage points quarter-over-quarter to 14.5%, mainly due to reduced promotional activities. Excluding EV and other new initiative expenses, our operating expense ratio would have been 13.3% in the third quarter, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. As we continue to increase our R&D investment, R&D expense ratio reached 5.8% this quarter.

In the past year, we have made progress in managing our expenses. Our total operating expenses this quarter reached RMB 10.2 billion [Technical Difficulty].

We have been actively promoting sustainable corporate development. In August, Xiaomi was selected to Forbes China's first-ever China ESG 50 list, which recognizes our efforts in ESG. In October, Xiaomi was named as one of Forbes world's best employers for the second consecutive quarter, demonstrating strong endorsement of our practices in talent development as well as social responsibility.

We have been actively promoting public welfare initiatives. We responded rapidly to recent natural disasters and made donations to support those in need. In addition, we have been promoting education equality initiatives in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam as well as Singapore.

This concludes our prepared remarks. Let's open the call up for questions from investors.

A
Anita Chan
executive

Thank you, Alain. We will now proceed to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question has come from Andy Meng with Morgan Stanley.

A
Andy Meng
analyst

[Foreign Language] Xiaomi has started smartphone inventory destocking since the second quarter this year. Could you share with us the latest progress of the stocking and inventory balance in China and other overseas markets, including India and Europe? Based on latest observations, what's the smartphone outlook in the fourth quarter? And how does the latest inventory dynamics affect your gross margin profile in the coming quarters?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Thank you, Andy. I think if you look at the numbers, I think we are making good progress and decrease our inventory level. So the level decreased by 9% year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. I think it's a good -- very good signal -- but regarding to -- to take how long to get to the normal level, I think, we will continue to utilize the promotion season like in Q4 to clear the inventory.

So we think our inventory level right now is in progress. I think probably end of this year or maybe the first -- beginning of next year, we'll get to the normal level. We're working very hard on that. By the way, the inventory actually is I think it's not -- I think it's a lot of inventories on the -- it's not that in inventory. Actually, we are confident that we can clear them all. That takes a little while.

A
Alain Lam
executive

I think to answer you -- to supplement the answer from Xiang Wang. As you can see from our reported inventory levels, the raw material inventory has stayed at a relatively healthy level. It has increased slightly this quarter because we have to stock up on some of the new SoCs for our products in the second half of the year. So that's the raw material part. But overall, we think that it is at a pretty healthy level.

On the finished goods side, I think as we mentioned last quarter, after the 618 event, our inventory in China has largely been normalized, and that hasn't changed this quarter. India after Diwali has become -- has gone down to a pretty healthy level, although I think it might take another quarter or so for that to be cleared.

And in the overseas market, I think is what Xiang Wang is saying, still will be our major focus for this upcoming quarter as there are several large promotional events that is happening in the international market this quarter. So as such, I think that we are on the right track. As you can see, our finished goods has come down significantly between -- in the last couple of quarters as part of our efforts.

In terms of gross margin, our Q3 gross margin has increased from our Q2 gross margin, partly due to the fact that our -- the premium products that we launched in China and in Q3 carried pretty healthy margins. And as such, I think that, that has helped our gross margin overall.

In terms of how we look at Q4, we hope that our gross margin will continue to improve. I think as we work through our inventory level, and as we have less impact of provisions of our existing inventory, we think that our gross margin on our smartphone business will get back to a much more healthier level in Q4.

Operator

And our next question has come from Timothy Zhao with Goldman Sachs.

T
Timothy Zhao
analyst

[Foreign Language] And my question will be about the overseas market, which appears to be a gross [indiscernible] across the smartphone and IoT business lines. And also, if you look at the Internet Services revenue, overseas markets also show a sequential slowdown compared to the first and second quarter this year. Could management share some outlook on how we should look at the growth for the overseas market across different business lines and specifically, for the IoT market, what is the original breakdown?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Yes. Thank you, Timothy. I think we are -- in some of the global markets, like Europe, we are growing our market share. Right now, the European market, we are 23% even with the macroeconomic downturns. So we think we will -- we try to maintain our growth there. And also, the Latin America, we also see the positive trend.

So -- and overall, although the global smartphone shipment dropped about 10% but because of our scale, I think we will find the growth area, continue to put our resources there to grow our business there. So, yes. Alain, probably you can...

A
Alain Lam
executive

Yes. Look, I think Timothy, I'll get to the Internet first, and then I'll get to the IoT afterwards, right? On the Internet side, I think there's no denying that overall, the global ad market has also been not in a particularly robust stage -- robust form this year, right? I think if you look at the global advertising market, it hasn't been growing that much for this year.

So I think -- despite that, I think given that our users have continue to grow, we have managed to increase our revenue year-over-year as well as quarter-over-quarter. I think that's something that I think it's the overall market that has slowed down, that has caused our Internet market -- Internet Services revenue to slow down. But given our user growth is still quite healthy, I think we've been able to outperform the market. I mean that's the first one.

On the IoT side, I mean, obviously, we are certainly hurt by the macroeconomic impact that has impacted the global economy, right, especially in Europe, right? I think that the inflation, the ForEx fluctuations, et cetera. That means that the European demand has softened quite significantly in the IoT market. And as a result, some of the categories like Vacuum Robot Cleaner like our scooters have seen quite meaningful decline in terms of revenue.

And as such, I think that's something that we've been very -- we've been very closely monitoring the situations over there. And obviously, as Xiang Wang mentioned in his opening remarks, we haven't seen that much significant changes in the third quarter.

I think we need to -- as a result, I think we need to focus on some of these major events that are coming up, Black Friday and Christmas, et cetera, to clear out some of our inventory in the channel to prepare us for next year. And then next year, we also look to kind of doing more product, introducing more SKUs to the international.

Operator

And our next question is come from Kyna Wong with Credit Suisse.

K
Kyna Wong
analyst

[Foreign Language] Now let me translate the question in English. So I just wanted to ask, any directions or expectation on the expenses for EV and other new initiatives in the fourth quarter and the 2023 because the original expectation to spend around like RMB 10 billion before the productions of EV. Is that still on track? Or it could be like something adjusted due to the macro situations? And what should be -- what should we expect on the next milestone for the EV status given now we know that the ADAS filter is actually ongoing? And then what should we expect in the coming few quarters time to time?

A
Alain Lam
executive

I think, first of all, the EV expenses will continue to ramp up, right, as we're getting closer to our launch, which we're still expecting in the first half of 2024. So as we -- as you can see in the past [ 3 quarters ], our expenses have ramped up gradually, and that we expect that to continue in the Q3 and Q4 of this year. So I think that's the overall. I think -- so I think that's the first question.

As we continue to invest in our headcount as well as our CapEx, I think that expenses will continue to increase. Right now, our R&D team has already exceeded 1,800 people. So we continue to increase the headcount in our EV business.

In terms of the development, right now, we haven't talked about the development in the public. So probably, we'll save that to be -- to [indiscernible] at this point. So we have not talked about some of these developments in public. So I hope that you understand. I think we try to stay in the low profile now on EV. I think the two things is we continue to expect our first car to be mass produced in 2024 first half. And then second is our number of employees have exceeded 1,800 people.

K
Kyna Wong
analyst

Yes. Got you. I just wanted to check if there any update, but -- yes. Yes, we understood.

Operator

And our next question has come from [indiscernible] with UBS.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes, sorry. Can you hear me now?

A
Anita Chan
executive

Yes, please.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes, sorry. I think most of my questions were answered earlier, but still want to double check whether you'll be able to share any considerations regarding the manufacturing side of the EV business, whether it will be internal or external? Any color will be very helpful. [Foreign Language]

A
Alain Lam
executive

[Foreign Language] I mean, we don't have any particular update at this point. I think, obviously, we are considering different alternatives, and we are considering all the possible alternatives. So it's not -- it's still under consideration at this point.

Operator

And our next question is come from [indiscernible] with CITIC.

U
Unknown Analyst

[Foreign Language] In the third quarter, the growth profit margin of smartphones dropped a lot, and there is no significant improvement quarter-on-quarter. And what are the main factors? How about the trend of the first quarter?

A
Alain Lam
executive

I think there are a couple of factors, right? Number one is, obviously, last year, we're still enjoying a global supply constraint, right? As a result, I think that our overall smartphone shipment as well as our smartphone gross margin, we were enjoying pretty healthy growth as well as margins. I mean, this year, the situation has obviously changed quite dramatically. Our -- so I think that the overall year-over-year, there's not -- there's a decline, I think, for that reason.

In terms of quarter-over-quarter, I think that there are -- if I look at the three major areas, right? Number one is our China business. If you look at the gross margin, it has gone to a pretty healthy level given that we have launched some of our premium products over in China. And as you said, there have not been as much promotional events in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter. That's the first one.

Second area is India. So obviously, India, third quarter is Diwali, right? As we're preparing for Diwali, as we are launching into Diwali, the gross margin in India in the third quarter tends to be much lower than the second quarter because of the -- as well as the fact that we are trying to clean up our inventory -- some of the inventory in India. So as a result, I think quarter-over-quarter, we've seen a decline in terms of gross margin.

Overseas market, I think it continues to remain healthy despite the fact that we've been trying to also make a big effort in terms of clearing our inventory over there. So the overseas market, excluding India, remains reasonably healthy. Again, there was some degradation compared to last year given that we've been trying to clean up our inventory as well as the fact that there's some degradation probably over the last quarter, again, because we are making a more enhanced effort to clean up our inventory.

And as a result, I think overall, you get the result of China better -- much better; India, a little bit worse; and then overseas kind of flat to a bit worse-ish, right, to get to that level of Q-over-Q comparison. Does that make sense?

Operator

And our next question is come from [indiscernible] with CICC.

U
Unknown Analyst

[Foreign Language] We see that revenue of large home appliance increased over 70% year-over-year, which is much higher than the 25% growth rate in the first half of the year. So could management just share the reason for this strong growth? And what is your long-term development strategy for this category?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Yes. I think -- thank you for the question. Actually, I think for the air conditioner, actually, we have a very good product, but also we thank to the weather. So actually, we ship a lot of air conditioners to the market because of the weather and a very good product. And others, we are also working very hard to make up -- find the best-selling features, refrigerator and washers. So they're also doing good as a start.

Actually, the good progress for us is we -- our Mi Home actually offline channels, just sell a lot of big appliances, like white products through our offline channels. This is also a very good signal so that we can sell not only smartphones, wearables but also bigger appliances in our offline channel.

And also, we are using the platform -- the Internet platforms -- online platforms, to combine online platforms with our offline stores, has also helped to drive the revenue growth for the bigger appliances.

A
Alain Lam
executive

One of the key things as Xiang Wang mentioned, is obviously the weather in China was extremely hot in the third quarter. And as a result, our air conditioners, despite dropping -- volume dropping, shipment dropping Q-over-Q, but is still a massive increase from our last -- from our Q3 of last year because of the supply and then surge in demand due to the weather. .

But at the same time, I think we are getting more competitive in our products. Last year was obviously -- we're still ramping up this business. And as a result, I think you've seen a significant increase in our growth.

Also, I think that in terms of strategy, I think we've been much more focused on premium products this year. I think if you look at our strategy going forward, we'll continue to focus on the premium segment of these white goods products, which means that we're probably more focused on higher ASP products and as a result, it will also help our overall revenue as well as ASP itself.

Operator

And our next question has come from [ Leping Wang ] with [ Huatai Securities ].

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay. [Foreign Language]. So I have a question about the smartphone market outlook in 2023. I was quite surprised that Xiang mentioned that this last quarter was the worst quarter in last 9 years in the smartphone market. So what are the new feature we require to attract this consumer to buy the new phones? And what are the opportunity and challenge for Xiaomi to achieve sustainable earnings growth in this market?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Yes, thank you. Thank you for the question. Actually, it's very much related to the global market, the total size of the market. So in the last quarter, actually, the global market dropped almost 10%. So that's why it's the lowest quarter in the past 9 years. And also, in China, actually, the total market dropped 11%, even worse.

But I think we will get back to the normal, but we still see a lot of uncertainties because of the global economy. Many, many factors to impact the total market, for example, the inflation and also the U.S. versus other currencies. So we are very closely monitoring the dynamic of the global trend.

But we remain confident because I think with our strategy, we are going to do -- continue to invest in the mid- and high-tier products. But at the same time, we will also continue to offer a lot of very, very competitive market for the global users from the entry level to mid-level products. So we are prepared for the recovery. So we remain confident on that. So we just need to closely monitor the dynamic.

Another area we see is the Q3 -- if you compare Q1, Q2, Q3, you can see our shipment steadily grow quarter-over-quarter, although the growth rate is not very high, but you see the resilience of our market.

U
Unknown Analyst

What would be the normal level of smartphone shipment globally based on your experience? So this year, it's a very abnormal level because of the macro environment?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Yes. I think that it dropped 10%, right? If you want to get normal, you have to grow 10% from current level, and that definitely get to the normal. So we still in the -- a lot of uncertainties. We don't know when we can see the recovery. But we're seeing that the -- I would say, the rate of declining kind of stabilized.

Operator

And our next question is come from Gokul Hariharan with JPMorgan.

G
Gokul Hariharan
analyst

My question is slightly similar to what [ Leping ] asked. So for China smartphones, if you look at the numbers this year, we're running at about 270 million, 280 million units. Overall installed base is 1.3 billion to 1.4 billion users. So roughly, we are running at something like a 5-year replacement cycle, which we have never really seen in the past.

So could you talk a little bit about what is your expectation for -- what is a steady-state number for China smartphones? And when do you expect a bit of a recovery? Like what are you penciling in for 2023 for China smartphones? Do you expect some recovery next year? Or you think that it's still going to be relatively muted compared to 2022?

A
Alain Lam
executive

Well, I think, Gokul, I think to answer your question, I think Xiang Wang actually answered a very similar question just now. We...

G
Gokul Hariharan
analyst

No, I think very specific to China, to be honest.

A
Alain Lam
executive

Right. Your question is China? Or your question is...

G
Gokul Hariharan
analyst

Yes, specific to China, specific to China, because the replacement cycle in China, at least, numerically look extremely long, 4.5 to 5 years, which I think we have never been in any market. So I just wanted to understand your perspective on this.

A
Alain Lam
executive

Well, look, I think that -- we think that this year -- we think that next year, right, will roughly be the same as this year, I think at best. I'm not sure that the 1.3 billion, 1.4 billion, I think that's something that we need to verify that. But obviously, from an overall macro perspective, we expect that next year will probably stay at a similar level.

One thing is obviously, the development of the secondhand market in China. People -- some people are buying secondhand phones in China. The second one is obviously extending the life cycle of each phone. But -- I mean, I've seen some surveys recently that suggest that it's probably 2 to 3 years as opposed to 4 to 5 years.

But I think against this macro environment, we continue to stay relatively conservative in terms of our overall -- in terms of estimated the overall size of the market for next year.

X
Xiang Wang
executive

So based on the third-party company, BCI Data, actually, the life cycle for a smartphone right now in 2022 is 27 months compared to 22 months in 2017. So that's their data.

Operator

And now, we will now invite the last question. And the last question is come from [ Kuai Jian ] with Orient Securities.

U
Unknown Analyst

[Foreign Language] Currently, our retail channel is facing pandemic challenges. If the pandemic is over next year, what will be the positive impact to the sales of premium phones and IoT products?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Yes, I think if we can solve the pandemic issue, so I think you will see a very positive effect because right now, we have almost 2,000 stores staying closed. They closed because of the pandemic. And also, right now, based on the latest data, actually, half of our high-end smartphones are shipped from our offline channels. So right now, we have -- we maintain about 10,000 stores. So we'll see a very good potential to grow our smartphone [Audio Gap] if the pandemic is over for the year 2023.

U
Unknown Analyst

So can we propose it will be related -- highly related to the number of stores? Like currently, we have 10,000. And if we increase the number to like -- to 12,000, then can we expect something like 20%? Or how do we quantify the number?

X
Xiang Wang
executive

I think right now, our strategy or plan is to optimize the store, optimize the -- actually to improve the efficiency of each store, not just simply add the number of stores. So we will do optimization for our geographic coverage and the focus on increasing the efficiency of each store.

Of course, compared to our competitors, we have much less stores in China, but we still believe we should -- there is a big room for us to improve our efficiency of each store. That's the focus for us right now.

A
Anita Chan
executive

Operator, can you conclude the call?

Operator

Yes. Thank you, and this concludes today's conference call. And thanks again for joining us, and you may now disconnect.

X
Xiang Wang
executive

Thank you very much.

A
Alain Lam
executive

Thank you.