Lei Jun is a businessman from China who has founded the Xiaomi Inc. This company is China’s biggest technology company. Lei had an estimated a net worth of 35 million US dollars since he owned 77% of Xiaomi. Xiaomi is a company of 45 billion dollars. In 2011 he was ranked 201 on Forbes list of China’s richest. He was also named the Businessman of the Year by Forbes. Forbes listed Lei Jun in number 87 on their list of billionaire in the world with a worth of 13.2 billion dollars in July 2015. June 2016, Forbes described Lei Jun’s net worth around 9.8 billion dollars.
He is often called the Steve Jobs of China.
Early Life
Born on 16th December, 1969, in Hubei, China, Lei graduated from Mianyang Middle School. He started going to Wuhan University, where he got a BA in computer science. This was in 1991. He worked in Kingsoft as an engineer then became the president of the company in 1998.
Family
Marriage
Lei Jun is married to Zhnag Tong
Children
He has two children with Zhang Tong.
Career
Lei founded a website for an online bookstore, in 2000, which was later sold for 75 million dollar to Amazon in 2004. In 2007, due to health reasons, Lei resigned as the president and CEO of Kingsoft. After the resignation, he invested in UCWEB and Vancl. He also became the chairman of UCWEB in 2008. On April 6th 2010, Lei founded Xiaomi Inc. This company manufactures smartphones, consumer electronics and mobile apps. He also owns small stakes in the e-commerce based companies like VANCL and Lakala and also a video streaming and social communication platform YY, a social network.
Lei invested in about 20 companies and above in China. He continued to invest in companies under the e-commerce sector, mobile industries, and social networking through Shunwei Capital, an investment company. Lei rejoined Kingsoft as an Executive Director. He also became the 8th richest person in China with a net worth of 9.8 billion dollars.
It was disclosed in March 2015, that Lei Jun had invested an undisclosed amount in Chinese skincare and cosmetic company called Yu Jia Hiu. Lei Jun invested in more than 20 start-up companies and has plans to invest in 100 more to help Xiaomi Inc grow and expand exponentially.
Xiaomi
It is a Chinese electronic company which is headquartered in Beijing. It is the world’s 5th largest smartphone maker and sold 70.8 million dollar units. Xiaomi designs, develops and sells mobile phone, smart apps, and consumer electronics. It released its first smart phone in 2011. It has gained some market share in the mainland China. The company sold over 60 million smartphones in 2014. It has over 8000 employees in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines and also Brazil (in Latin America).
It sells its product exclusively on Flipkart, Amazon and also Snapdeal. On 11th August 2015, Xiaomi started its first factory in a place called Sricity, situated in Andhra Pradesh, India, in a partnership with Foxconn.