Major tech firm LeEco Holdings Co. Ltd. is targeting the U.S. and India as part of its bid to become a global firm. (Photo : Reuters)
Major tech firm LeEco Holdings Co. Ltd. is aiming to enter several overseas markets within the year as part of efforts to establish itself as a global company, China Daily reported.
On Wednesday, March 23, Hank Liu, co-founder and vice chairman of LeEco, said that it is targeting in 2016 two major markets outside China, namely, the United States and India.
"The year 2016 marks the beginning of our globalization," Liu said in the announcement on the sidelines of the 2016 Boao Forum for Asia, in Boao, Hainan Province. "We don't make it a goal to overtake tech giants, such as Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. or Tesla Motors Inc. But we do have an ambition to become a globalized company, because all great companies are globalized."
The report said that LeEco opened online channels to sell its smartphones and smart televisions in the two markets.
"Later in the first half of this year, we will make a major foray into Southeast Asia and in the second half of this year, we will enter the Russian market," Liu said, adding that the Beijing-based firm will replicate the business model in other markets overseas.
Although Liu did not disclose the total amount it had invested for its globalization strategy, he said that the investment will be used to satisfy the demand of overseas consumers for online videos and provide them with a range of video content.
Liu said: "We use different strategies to get contents into different markets. In the U.S., we adopt a strategy to open our platform to content producers, allowing them to reach audiences through our channel. And in some other countries, we could invest or even buy up some studios, so that we could produce our own programs."
Analysts said that by setting a low price for its newly launched Super TV X65 equipped with a 65-inch 4K screen, which is priced at 4,999 yuan ($769) in China, LeEco would never make profit from it.
Liu, however, said that their intention was not to make money from selling devices but from the contents and subscribers.
"We had 12 million paid subscribers for our TV contents alone in 2015," he said.
As top priorities for its overseas expansion, the company said it has chosen the U.S. market for its well-developed, cutting-edge tech companies, and India for being an important emerging economy with a large population.
"If we could be successful in those two markets, we can be successful around the world," he said, adding that to become one of the top three players, LeEco should aim to succeed not only in terms of market shares but also in the number of users.
The report said that the company's unique business model is based on a so-called ecosystem, which includes smart devices, video contents and now electric cars.
