In August 2013, the company announced that it was hiring Hugo Barra from Google, where he served as vice president of product management for the Android platform.[1][151][152][153] Barra has declined to comment on the timing of the Google relationships, and stated that he had been in talks with Xiaomi for over a year prior to announcing the move.[154] He was employed as vice president of Xiaomi to expand the company outside of mainland China, making Xiaomi the first company selling smartphones to poach a senior staffer from Google's Android team.[155] Barra's focus was to help Xiaomi grow internationally.[156][157] Barra quit his position in January 2017 to join Facebook as VP of virtual reality.[158]