Three and a half years since quitting his high profile post at Google where he was a Vice President and product spokesman of its mobile platform, Android, Hugo Barra is also leaving the company he moved turned to: Xiaomi.
According to a post on his Facebook feed, Barra is leaving the Beijing-based device maker to return to Silicon Valley where he had been previously based because of personal reasons – to be closer to his family once again.
My 3.5 years at @xiaomi has been the greatest life adventure. Now it’s time to come home. Wrote a letter here: https://t.co/mLrF1kFUeM
— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) January 23, 2017
During Barra’s tenure at Xiaomi, the Chinese device maker rose to be one of the biggest mobile device brands in the world. As head of the brand’s international operations, he oversaw its wider expansion beyond its traditional home market in Asia and into other parts of the world.
In the last one year, however, Xiaomi’s fortunes have taken a dive.
The company recently refused to disclose its smartphone sales figures for the first time after developing a culture of releasing the said figures annually. Increased competition from compatriots Vivo, Oppo and Huawei, which is now one of the top three smartphone vendors in the world, can also be attributed to Xiaomi’s recent struggles.
Hugo Barra will be replaced by Xiang Wang, currently a senior Vice President at the company, according to Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin.
