Chinese smartphone manufacturer LeEco is setting itself up as a crucial player in the emerging Indian market. And in a bid to push it forward, it is planning to invest about $200 million into developing self-produced content over the next two to three years.
LeEco aims to fill about half of its content library with original content produced locally for the local audience of India. It will also try to enter into partnerships and acquire rest of the content from local production houses and content providers. The company has laid out a three year roadmap and already tied-up with Eros, Hungama and YuppTV.
With over 7 lakh smartphones sold in the country, the company wants to use content distribution to set its brand apart from other manufacturers in the crowded Indian market. It believes that content, primarily movies, videos and music will be the key differentiator for them.
Commenting on the same, Debashish Ghosh, COO, Indian Content Business at LeEco India says,
We won’t shy away from investing into content… you could see about $200 million over two to three years. We plan to launch our own content platform by October, which will host original and acquired premium content. Maybe in three to four years, half of our content would be original.
LeEco, which has businesses in online video streaming, smartphone and smart TV production, is dubbed the Netflix of China. The company has also launched a range of smart televisions in India yesterday, and plans to integrate its content on it as well as its smartphones.
The company is currently also in talks with multiple contract manufacturers to locally produce its smartphones in the country, starting next month. Atul Jain, COO, Smart Electronics Business, LeEco confirms the development and adds,
We’re close to starting manufacturing, within this quarter. We’ve been evaluating different locations including Andhra Pradesh, UP, Haryana and Uttarakhand. Now, we’re in the final stages.
The company aims to be the #1 brand in the online TV space and has also recently acquired American TV manufacturer Vizio for a staggering $2 billion. And it is possibly also pursuing online streaming service Netflix for a possible cooperation in content, reports SCMP. LeEco will announce the same by the end of third quarter, this fiscal year.
