Xiaomi smartphone sales triple in 2014

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. sold 61.12 million smartphones in 2014, up 227 percent year on year, company founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Lei Jun said Sunday.

Total sales revenue with tax reached 74.3 billion yuan (12 billion U.S. dollars), up 135 percent year on year, Lei said in an open email to the company's employees.

Sales of the brand expanded to six countries and regions over the past year, including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The company was valued at 45 billion U.S. dollars in the new round of financing late December.

The announcement comes as the company released its new model, Redmi 2, on Sunday for 699 yuan, considerably cheaper than its other models.

Xiaomi, which means "millet" in Chinese, was founded in April 2010 by Lei and his friends in Zhongguancun, Beijing's technology hub, which has been called "China's Silicon Valley." Xiaomi's first smartphone debuted on Aug. 16, 2011.