Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it is investing $590 million in the smartphone Meizu, whose smartphones are known for the uncanny similarity with Apple’s iPhones. Alibaba has not revealed the size of the stake, it is getting for the aforementioned amount.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this move from the e-retail giant will help it bolster its presence in mobile.
“The investment in Meizu represents . . . an important step in our overall mobile strategy,” said Wang Jian, Alibaba’s chief technology officer.
Traditionally the manufacturer of MP3 players, Meizu became popular for the smartphones around the same time as Xiaomi (in 2011), but didn’t see quick growth like the latter, despite offering similar design and specifications in its smartphones. The investment from Alibaba could help the company in taking on the larger smartphone makers like Lenovo, Huawei and Xiaomi.
For further information, read WSJ or FT.
