Alibaba has made a strategic investment of $590 million in Chinese smartphone maker Meizu. Alibaba seeks to integrate its mobile operating system YunOS with Meizu’s phones and hardware, while distributing the phones through the company’s online shopping platforms.
“The investment in Meizu represents a significant expansion of the Alibaba Group ecosystem and an important step in our overall mobile strategy as we strive to bring users a wider array of mobile offerings and experiences,”
said Jian WANG, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Group.
Alibaba said that it will hold a minority stake in Meizu, but did not say how much of the company it will own. Alibaba Group and Meizu will collaborate at both strategic and business levels to achieve a deeper integration of Meizu’s hardware and Alibaba Group’s mobile operating system. Alibaba Group will provide Meizu with resources and support in the fields of e-commerce, mobile Internet, mobile operating system and data analysis with the aim of developing Meizu’s smartphone ecosystem. Alibaba Group’s online shopping marketplaces will also become distribution channels for Meizu’s smartphones and other devices.
“This strategic collaboration with Alibaba Group will enable Meizu to further develop our smartphone business and our smart devices ecosystem,”
said Meizu’s Chief Executive Officer, Yongxiang BAI.
Meizu is one of China’s leading smartphone manufacturers that has failed to enter the top five charts for largest manufacturer. It operates Xiaomi like online sale model. Meizu has come on strong since the release of its MX4 and MX Pro devices this year. The company aims to sell 20 million smartphones in 2015. At the end of 2014, China had more than one billion mobile phone users and about 40 percent of them use smartphones, according to IDC.