Meizu is a company not many of you guys might have heard of. The company is based in China and they have been manufacturing Android smartphones for a while now, although we guess their lack of presence stateside is probably why many have not heard of them. However it seems that the company could be getting a huge injection of cash, courtesy of Alibaba.
According to a report from Reuters, it seems that Alibaba is getting more serious about their aspirations to enter the smartphone market as they have recently invested a whopping $590 million into Meizu. The goal here is to help push Alibaba’s own brand of mobile operating system in China’s burgeoning smartphone market.
For those unfamiliar, Alibaba has their own operating system called YunOS, a Linux-based platform which can be found in handsets like the Meizu MX4 Pro. Given that Google’s services are largely banned from being operated in China, local companies such as Alibaba have flourished with their alternatives.
Meizu is also expected to benefit from this investment, aside from the cash, as it would give them access to Alibaba’s e-commerce sales channels and other resources. We’re not sure if this deal could also see Meizu try to expand their way into the US market, but considering how competitive the market is, we’re not sure if customers really need yet another operating system to choose from.