Huawei has partnered with Youku, the Alibaba-owned video platform, to cooperate on content production and distribution, 36Krreports.
The partnership will see Youku content featured in a special section of the Huawei video app, which comes pre-installed on Huawei phones and tablets. Youku also said the integration will extend to even bigger screens, like Huawei televisions, in the future.
For Youku, it’s an opportunity to reach a new audience, particularly in China’s lower-tier cities. Over 250 million people use Huawei devices in China currently, according to the company’s consumer cloud services president, Zhang Ping.
Alibaba’s video platform lags Baidu-owned iQiyi and Tencent Video in terms of user numbers. According to QuestMobile data cited by 36Kr, the two market leaders have 543 million and 540 million monthly users, and 115 million and 112 million daily users, respectively. Youku, in comparison, has 413 million monthly users and 79 million daily users.
Meanwhile, this is Huawei’s second partnership with a heavyweight Chinese video platform, following a similar partnership with Tencent Video announced last month.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.