Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, which has been quite successful in India with its smartphones, has annoucned today that it has invested US$25 million in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, India’s largest digital media entertainment company. Other investors in this enterprise include Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Indian billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
This is the first ever investment that Xiaomi has made in an Indian company. It marks the deepening of Xiaomi’s strategy to introduce localised Internet services, in particular content, on its smartphones in India. The move also further solidifies Xiaomi’s commitment in India. Xiaomi entered India in July 2014 and started local manufacturing a year later as a demonstration of its long-term commitment to the Indian market. Currently, over 75% of its smartphones sold in India are made in India, as stated by the company in its press statement.
Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi said: “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.”
Hungama has built partnerships with over 700 content creators, and now has over 8000 movies in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi and six other Indian regional languages on its platform. Over 65 million monthly active consumers access Hungama across platforms for its music, video and movie services, adds the statement of Xiaomi.
