Xiaomi has managed to grow quite a bit in the last couple of years. This company was founded in 2010, and has managed to become China’s number one smartphone manufacturer in 2014. The company managed to stay above the competition in China last year as well, even though Huawei is putting the pressure on them. That being said, Xiaomi invested money in quite a few companies over the years, though they have never invested in an India-based company, well, not until recently that is, read on.
The company has announced a $25 million investment into Hungama Digital Media Entertainment recently. This company is India’s largest digital media entertainment company, which makes this investment even more interesting. Xiaomi was joined by Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the Indian billionaire, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who have also invested in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. India is, next to China, Xiaomi’s most important market these days, and there’s a strategy behind this investment, of course. The company plans to introduce localised internet services on smartphones in India, and are clearly moving in that direction. Not only that, but they’re trying to push forward their commitment to the Indian smartphone market, not only is India their second most important market, but 75% of devices they sell in the country are actually manufactured in India as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
“Xiaomi has been an Internet company from the very start. We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver Internet services, and this includes content. As our user base in India grows and as 4G penetration in India continues picking up, we will start to see more and more consumption of digital media through Xiaomi devices. We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience,” said Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s Vice President.
Over 700 content creators contribute to Hungama, and the company now has over 8000 movies available in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi, and six other Indian languages, not to mention that they have over 65 million monthly active consumers. In any case, this is an interesting move by Xiaomi, and you can certainly expect some of Hungama’s content to be included on Xiaomi’s upcoming devices that are going to be available in India.