While many have known Meitu as the famous China photo editing app, the company also produced selfie-focused smartphones which did not produce great results, leading to the current business takeover by Xiaomi.
As Meitu isn’t as successful when it comes to smartphone sales, the partnership with Xiaomi will lead to Xiaomi being in charge of the hardware business such as the R&D, production and sales of the brand while Meitu focuses on the camera software. This is in efforts to reach out to more female consumers by offering better camera in the future smartphones for better selfies and photography.
The business takeover did not require any spending from Xiaomi, but instead they offer to pay Meitu 10% of the gross profit gained from the Meitu smartphones for up to five years. After that period of time, Xiaomi is expected to start paying a fixed licensing fee of $10 million per year to Meitu.
The partnership sounds like a wise choice made by both companies, as it will allow both companies to reach out to wider market and maybe create smartphones that will excel in both performance and camera. Though nothing has been said on when the future phones of these two companies will be released, the selfie smartphones will probably be seen next year onwards.
