Why Xiaomi Phones Have So Much Advertising: The Truth About the Brand’s Business Model

You bought a new Xiaomi smartphone and you were surprised to find that advertising is haunting you everywhere: in settings, in the browser, in branded apps and even on the lock screen. Why is this happening? Because the brand's devices are known for their value for money, not aggressive marketing. In fact, advertising at Xiaomi is not an accident, but part of a business strategy that allows the company to keep the price of iron low.

In this article, we will explain in detail why MIUI (And you'll learn how to minimize banner ads without rooting and complex manipulations, with step-by-step instructions for different models. It is impossible to completely get rid of advertising, but it is possible to reduce its number.

It's important to understand that Xiaomi advertising is not just about the greed of the manufacturer; it's about the trade-off between the price of the device and the functionality of the device, and the brand is consciously taking the step of offering powerful smartphones at affordable prices, but how much of that trade-off is justified for the user? Let's get this straight.

Xiaomi’s Business Model: Why Advertising is Not a Bug, but a Feature

Xiaomi is positioning itself as a company that sells devices at cost or at a minimal margin. But how does the brand make money? The answer lies in the ecosystem of services where advertising plays a key role. According to Xiaomi’s 2023 reports, up to 30 percent of the company’s profits come from online services, including targeted advertising, which means that one in five dollars Xiaomi makes comes not from selling phones, but from displaying banners.

This model has its pros and cons:

• ✅ Low iron prices – Xiaomi smartphones are often cheaper than competitors with similar specs.
• ✅ Regular updates – thanks to revenue from services, Xiaomi can support older models longer.
• ❌ Aggressive Advertising – Users become a ‘product’ for advertisers.
• ❌ Data collection – for targeted advertising, you need to analyze user behavior.

In essence, Xiaomi follows the Google or Meta model: the main product (smartphone) is sold cheaply or for free, and money is earned from user data, the only difference is that Google offers free services (search, Gmail), and Xiaomi offers cheap hardware, in both cases you pay not with money, but with attention.

2. MIUI: How the shell turned into an advertising platform

Branded shell MIUI — It's not just a wrapper for Android, it's a fully-fledged ecosystem with its own services, and that's where the main source of advertising is hidden, unlike pure Android (like the Pixel or Motorola), MIUI Integrates advertising blocks at the system level:

• 📱 Lock screen – banners with offers of games, promotions, news.
• ⚙️ Settings – Advertising in the “Recommendations” or “Special Offers” section".
• 🔍 Search for MIUI — sponsorship links in the results.
• 📁 File Manager – Cloud Storage or Application offerings.
• 🎵 Music player – banners with concert tickets or streaming services.

And the advertising in MIUI Personalized: the system analyzes your actions (which apps you install, which sites you visit) and shows relevant offers, for example, if you play mobile games often, you will be offered new releases from the Mi Game Center. If you take a lot of photos – banners with editors or cloud storage for photos.

Interesting fact: Xiaomi 14 and new versions MIUI There's less advertising, but it's smarter. Now banners are less common, but they're more targeted, which means that the system knows your preferences better, and it's harder to get rid of them.

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To temporarily hide the ads on the lock screen, swipe left or right – sometimes banners disappear after this gesture.

3. Pre-installed applications: Trojan horses for advertising

One of the main sources of advertising in Xiaomi is pre-installed apps that can't be removed without root rights. Many of them look useful, but they actually exist only for displaying banners.

Many of these apps duplicate Google features (e.g. Mi Browser vs Chrome) but are aggressively monetized. Moreover, some of them (e.g. Mi Game Center) cannot be removed by standard means, only disable, and are designed to prevent users from completely getting rid of advertising channels.

Another trick Xiaomi does is install apps automatically through the Mi App Store, where even if you don't download anything yourself, the system can install "recommended" programs (usually games or utilities) in the background, via Auto Update in the app store settings.

Geographical Factor: Why there is more advertising in Russia and India

The amount of advertising in Xiaomi depends on the region of sale of the device, which is due to the fact that in different countries Xiaomi has different partners and different agreements with advertisers.

• 🇷🇺 Russia – many banners from local services (Yandex, Sber, VTB, Wildberries).
• 🇮🇳 India – Advertising cricket betting, local marketplaces (Flipkart, Amazon India).
• 🇪🇺 Europe – less advertising, but more offers from global brands (Netflix, Spotify).
• 🇨🇳 China has almost no advertising, because MIUI The world is very different (there is an ecosystem).

This is because Xiaomi is adapting its monetization strategy to each market.In low-middle-income countries (India, Indonesia, Russia), users are more sensitive to the price of the phone, so the company compensates for the low margins with aggressive advertising.In Europe and the US, Xiaomi can afford fewer banners, as the prices of devices there are higher.

An interesting nuance is that if you bought Xiaomi in one region and then changed the region in settings (for example, from Russia to Europe), the amount of advertising may decrease, but some banners will still remain, since they are tied to firmware, not geolocation.

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Change of region in settings (Settings) → Additionally. → Regions may reduce the amount of advertising, but will not remove it completely.

5. How Xiaomi Collects Data for Targeted Advertising

To serve relevant ads, Xiaomi needs to know as much about you as possible, and to do so, the system collects data from multiple sources:

1. Analysis of installed apps – if you have a lot of games, you will be offered new releases.
2. Search query tracking – built-in search MIUI remembers what you're looking for.
3. Activity monitoring – which features of the phone you use more often (camera, music, instant messengers).
4. Location data – to show local promotions (for example, discounts in nearby stores).
5. Information about the device - phone model, version MIUI, disk space.

All of this data is processed by the algorithms of Xiaomi Advertising Platform, the internal system of targeted advertising, while Xiaomi claims that it does not share personal data with third parties, but this does not mean that the information is not used to display banners within the ecosystem. MIUI.

Important: Even if you turn off personalized ads in your settings, Xiaomi will still collect data, just banners will become less relevant. Completely stop collecting information only by turning off all advertising services (we will discuss this below).

6. How to disable advertising in Xiaomi: step-by-step instructions

Remove advertising from the MIUI You can't, but you can make it much smaller. Here are proven ways to do things in different parts of the system:

📱 Lock screen

Go to Settings. → Lock screen → Extra and turn it off:

• 🔘 "Recommended content"
• 🔘 "Mi Globe (if any)
• 🔘 "Weather and Hours (sometimes containing sponsorship blocks)

⚙️ System settings

In the Settings section → The phone. → Version. MIUI tap 7 times on the version to activate Developer Mode:

1. Return to Settings → Additional → Special Opportunities.
2. Find Remove Advertising (in some versions) MIUI this item).
3. Turn off all toggles associated with recommendations.

🔍 Search for MIUI

Open the search (swipe down on the home screen), click on the settings icon (⚙️) and turn it off:

• 🔘 "Show recommendations"
• 🔘 "Show popular queries"

📲 Pre-installed annexes

For each "advertising" application (see table above), do:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the right app (such as Mi Browser).
3. Click Disable or Remove Updates.
4. Disallow notifications and auto-start.

If after these actions, the advertisement still appears, try resetting the ad settings:

1. Go to Settings → Google → Advertising.
2. Click Reset Advertising ID.
3. Turn off personalized advertising.

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The most radical way is to install custom firmware (like LineageOS or Pixel Experience), but this requires unlocking the bootloader and can take away your warranty.

7.Should you fight against advertising in Xiaomi?

Before you spend time turning off all banners, ask yourself: is it worth it? The fight against advertising in Xiaomi has its pros and cons:

Arguments for disconnection:

• ✅ Less distractions – the phone is faster.
• ✅ More privacy – less data leaks to Xiaomi.
• ✅ Clean interface – no annoying pop-ups.

Arguments against:

• ❌ Some features may stop working (for example, weather on the lock screen).
• ❌ Risk of disrupting system stability (if system applications are removed).
• ❌ Loss of some "slats" MIUI (For example, quick access to services).

The compromise option is to disable only the most intrusive ads (for example, on the lock screen and in the settings), but leave personalized recommendations in the browser or app store if they are useful to you.

And it's also worth remembering that Xiaomi is constantly updating its algorithms, and what works today may not work tomorrow. MIUI 14 new ways to display ads that are not blocked by the old methods.

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If you frequently reflash your phone, back up your ad-free settings with Mi Mover or Titanium Backup. This will save you time after resetting.

FAQ: Frequent questions about Xiaomi advertising

Now you know why Xiaomi has so much advertising and how to deal with it, and if you care about privacy and a clean interface, you should spend time setting up the system, and if you're happy with the current state of affairs, you can put up with banners for the sake of the low price of the device, and anyway, the choice is always yours.