Your Tech Story

Steve Jobs of China: Lei Jun Founder of Xiaomi

Recognized as the ‘Steve Jobs’ of China, Lei Jun  the Founder of Xiaomi has amassed a net worth of $8.4 billion. Xiaomi Inc. is the world’s fastest growing mobile phone company, who climbed to fourth position in a short span of time.

Lei Jun is not just an entrepreneur but much more than that. He is the mastermind behind the quick and astounding growth of Xiaomi Inc. Since the incubation of this company ten years back, today the company’s net worth is a whopping $45 billion. The company’s motive is to provide quality smartphones with high-end features in affordable price range. And they have stood to their point delivering the smartphones loved by the whole world.

Success only comes after a huge struggle and Lei Jun has faced all those hard times to become the most influential personality today. He was born on 16th December, 1969 in Hubei, China. Jun’s childhood was spent in an under developed industrial area of Wuhan, Central China. He graduated from Mianyang Middle School in 1987 and further went to Wuhan University to take a degree in Computer Science. And in 1991, he came out as a Bachelor’s student of Computer Science.

The most common ‘next step’ after gaining a degree is to find a suitable job. Lei Jun was also in the race to find one. His graduation days were spent in reading about the tech revolutionary Steve Jobs and dreaming to become like him one day. After wandering for a job Lei landed a job offer from Kingsoft, a software giant in China. Just within seven years Lei Jun was announced as the CEO and President of the company. During his time as a CEO Jun started an online bookstore. Joyo.com, in 2000 which went on to become so famous that it became number one fan base for the book lovers till 2004. The rising popularity of Joyo grabbed Amazon’s attention and they acquired it for a mind-blowing price of $75 million.

Lei Jun has made a unique image by not just being a CEO of Kingsoft. He is an active investor who has invested in numerous startups like Vancl.com, YY, UCWeb, etc. Jun has successfully funded more than 70 startups. In the year 2007, Lei Jun faced health complications leading him to resign from the CEO post and settle on Vice Chairman instead. This was when he seriously started thinking upon founding his own dream company, Xiaomi Inc. The company was started and garnered success Jun never even thought of.

Jun was featured in the Top 10 IT figures in 1999, 2000, and 2002. In 2012 the China Central Television chose him as one of the top 10 business leaders in China. Fortune has named Jun as the most powerful business personality in the whole Asia. Jun lives with his wife and two children in China.