With the advent of ‘faster’ mobile internet, digital services like media streaming is picking up. As such Xiaomi has now invested in Hungama.
Xiaomi, China’s popular smartphone maker, has announced that it has made its first investment in India by funding Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. The company invested a whopping $25 million (approx. Rs. 165 crore) thus leading the funding round which had other investors including Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Indian billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
With the investment in Hungama Digital, Xiaomi plans to integrate Hungama’s content services into its platforms, which will also include themes and ringtones. Hungama boasts of a library of 8000 movies in Indian languages and over 65 million monthly users across its music, video and movie platforms. Given the rising adoption of 4G LTE services in India and the rising number of users moving to digital services, Xiaomi’s investment makes sense.
Speaking about the investment in Hungama Digital, 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.”
