Xiaomi has invested $25 million in Indian content provider Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has made its first investment outside of the country in an Indian company known for providing music and videos.
Joining current investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Intel Capital, the Chinese company has just made a $25-million investment in India's Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
According to Tech in Asia, Xiaomi's move was quite possibly affected by their smartphone sales last year which did not quite make it to even their "most modest predictions."
While Xiaomi is currently in fifth place in the international smartphone market race per IDC, it appears that the company has not hit their targeted 80 million smartphone sales prediction in March 2015.
At the time, the outlet noted how Xiaomi suddenly became shy of sharing their current numbers, a surprising development since they used to post real-time updates about it.
According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, this was because the company has decided to "get rid of traditional key performance indicators."
"Xiaomi does not emphasize goals such as smartphone sales anymore," he said in an official MIUI statement in December.
Now, Xiaomi will be gambling on the Indian company because of the current business trend on data demand as more people are going online.
Hungama features over 8,000 Hollywood, Bollywood, and Indian regional language movies stored in its library accessed by more than 65 million monthly users, making it the perfect partner for the Chinese company seeking for greener pasture.
"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," explained Hugo Barra, the company's head of international operations.
According to Hungama Digital Media founder Neeraj Roy, India is has eight million new data users each month, 90 percent of whom use mobile devices for digital consumption.
"Content will drive the next phase . . . as we prepare to bring premium and original digital entertainment to a 100 million Indians before the end of this year," Roy added.
