Just before the end of last year, Beijing-based Xiaomi raised more than $1bn in its latest round of financing, bringing its valuation to $45bn. Xiaomi is usually described as a smartphone maker, which it is, as well as being the largest operator in the huge domestic market. But it is much more than just another hardware company that may soon marginalise Samsung (for example), just as Samsung and others sidelined Sony. Xiaomi has global ambitions and will increasingly pose a challenge.

“Lei Jun [its founder] has no intention of making money on hardware,” says Richard Ji, founder of hedge fund All Stars Investment in Hong Kong. Mr Ji led the Xiaomi financing and has known Mr Lei for many years. “It is just a customer acquisition channel. It is all about software and internet services. There is a full ecosystem in which hundreds of companies will use the Xiaomi platform.”

Just after the new year, no less a figure than Li Keqiang, the premier, presided over the opening in Shenzhen of WeBank, the first online bank in China, partly owned by Tencent Holdings, another leading internet company. It was a powerful reminder that Beijing blesses the efforts of these technology companies to take on the most entrenched and powerful state-owned companies.