China’s Xiaomi Inc. went public in the Hong Kong stock market today. Its founder, Lei Jun, said in an open letter released yesterday that over 7,000 employees of the company currently hold shares or options, and that all of them would receive corresponding rewards after its IPO today, Beijing Daily reported.

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Xiaomi Inc. was quietly started in a tiny office in Zhongguancun, otherwise known as “China’s Silicon Valley", on April 6, 2010. Xiaomi's IPO offer price is now HK $17, with an assessed value of US $54.3 billion, which ranks among the top three companies listed in tech stocks worldwide.

Looking back on the company's early days, Lei Jun said, “We took the bull by the horns and aimed it directly at the mobile phone industry, which was the most competitive industry at the time. For a startup company like us, it was challenging.” He added that starting from a small company of around 10 employees, incredibly, Xiaomi became the No.1 mobile phone company in China within three years. In only three and a half years, it also became India's number one mobile phone brand. Besides, Xiaomi has also become the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Statistics shows that Xiaomi's annual revenue reached 114.6 billion yuan in 2017. It successfully surpassed the threshold of 100 billion yuan within seven years. Lei Jun said, “I believe that Xiaomi's startup story will inspire and encourage more entrepreneurs!”

Lei also said that going public is only the beginning for Xiaomi, firmly believing that Xiaomi still has plenty of room for growth.

Recently, Lei Jun said in public that Xiaomi is a rare new company, with E-commerce, hardware and Internet service developing alongside each other. Lei explained, “Our ambition is more than this. We were born in the new era, so we want to push the era further forward.”