Baidu invested in and became the largest investor of DigiOne, a mobile Internet service which distributes cellphones to nearly 70,000 cellphone stores (report in Chinse). DigiOne have secured Series A financing from Shenzhen Capital Group and ZSVC in 2011.
Founded in 2006, DigiOne distributes small amounts of cellphones to small- and medium-sized stores directly, lowering the retailing price of smartphones at terminals by reducing the expenses and time of intermediate links.
With this move, Baidu aims to strengthen the connection between Baidu cloud smart terminal platform with hardware manufactures and B2B channels. It targets to combine the technology advantage of Baidu Cloud and the hardware and marketing channels of DigiOne in a bid to perfect the industrial ecology.
Baidu increased investments in Baidu Cloud smart terminal platform since June of 2012. After one year of development, this platform now supports more than 50 kinds of smartphones.
Industry insiders are bullish on the prospect of this investment. Baidu witnessed a spate of successful mergers and acquisitions concerning the companies of PPS, 91, and Qunar.
Leave a comment