Xiaomi suits up for a debut on Apple's home turf

Xiaomi Corp is preparing to enter the US smartphone market "in the near future", employing the same online sales and social media marketing tactics that helped the six-year-old startup become China's largest privately funded technology startup.

Xiaomi can no longer afford to ignore the world's largest smartphone arena by revenue, company Vice-President Hugo Barra said in an interview. Its international expansion is taking on newfound urgency as growth at home slows and rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co erode its market share.

"The US is a market that we definitely have in our sights," Barra said on Bloomberg Television.