WeChat teams up with Xiaomi to sell its Mi3 flagship phone right from the messaging app

Neither messaging app WeChat, nor Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi enjoy a status symbol in the West, but the situation is quite reversed in Asia. In fact, WeChat now hoards the messaging needs of some 270 million users and is second only to WhatsApp, while Xiaomi has made a name for itself with its renegade smartphones that offer value propositions only rivaled by Google's Nexus line.

Xiaomi wasn't even a brand just a few short years ago, and this seems to be working in favor for the Beijing-based company as it appears willing to experiment and doesn't seem afraid of failure. For its latest stunt, it has partnered with the above mentioned WeChat in order to try and off-load some 150,000 units of its prized Tegra 4/Snapdragon 800-touting Mi-3 flagship. These have been pretty scarce, with the first batch literally disappearing in a matter of a minute and a half.

While this move is certainly something of a novelty, it's not all too surprising, seeing as WeChat actually introduced an in-app purchasing system a few months ago. Whether this kind of a monetization model will work remains to be seen, yet we can't help but feel that these poor Mi-3s will have to leave their toasty warehouse homes faster than one would expect.