Chinese tech giant Tencent in a first of its invested in Indian OTT space by lending a huge $110.8 million to MX Player. The deal enables Tencent to have a foothold in Indian booming OTT space, which is a very attractive .
The Times Internet-owned video streaming platform, MX Player plans to utilise the fresh capital to generate more original content and in expanding entertainment genres. The video streaming platform has raised its first external funding at $500 post-money valuation, as per Techcrunch report.
This is the second bet by Chinese conglomerate into Times Internet-backed entities. Last year in February, Tencent had led $115 million financial round into music streaming app Gaana.
Over the years, Tencent has emerged as one of the largest investors in the Indian startup ecosystem. Apart from its high-profile investments in Ola, Byju’s, Hike and Flipkart, Tencent has also supported Udaan and Khatabook earlier this year.
The fresh capital inflow in MX Player will further intensify the OTT battle in the growing Indian market. Post the deal, Times Internet’s shareholder in MX Player would also reduce to 49 per cent.
Earlier in 2018, Times Internet had acquired a major stake in video app MX Player from Chinese games company Zenjoy for about $200 million. The company forayed into the digital space with the launch of five new web series, including Aafat, ImMature, Lots of Love, in February this year. MX Player boasts of 175 million monthly active users in India.
Currently, MX Player is an AVOD platform has started testing video streaming services in international markets such as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in recent times. Like Netflix, MX Player also plans to make original shows for these markets.
