Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has bought a two-letter domain name for a record US $3.6 million in order to make its name easier to say and remember by customers in Western countries.

Xiaomi bought mi.com for the record amount, making the domain one of the top five most expensive domain names in history.

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Mi.com beat the previous record holder whisky.com, which was bought for US $3.1 million in February of this year.

Other expensive two-letter domains are fb.com, which was bought by Facebook for US $8.5 million in 2010. YP.com was also bought by YellowPages.com for US $3.8 million in 2008.

The previous owner of mi.com was not immediately known and the website that carried the domain name had no content.

Xiaomi has expressed plans to break into Western countries but had concerns that customers might not be able to fully pronounce or spell the company's name.

The domain purchase came a few days after the company announced that it will expand to 10 new countries. These countries include Russia, India, and Brazil.

Xiaomi smartphones are currently available only in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

The company is privately owned and is considered as one of the biggest electronics firm in China. In 2013, Xiaomi sold 19 million phones, beating industry giants Samsung and Apple just two years since it started producing smartphones.

Although the brand is still not very popular in the United States, tech publications in the US compared Xiaomi to Apple and predicted that the company could surpass smartphone giants in the next few years.

The company's latest round of funding is expected to be a blockbuster deal that will value Xiaomi at up to US $10 billion.