Alibaba enters big game on smartphone market

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Monday announced its intention to buy a minority stake in the little-known Chinese smartphone maker Meizu Technology Co for $ 590 million.

Alibaba, currently worth $ 213 billion, does not disclose how large its stake in the enterprise will be. According to their website, Meizu currently employs more than 1000 people.

This deal will help the company push its own mobile operating system through the Meizu phones to the Chinese market, while at the same time passing Meizu to its distribution channels and other resources.

Alibaba previously specialized in software and services, including its main service - e-commerce. Now the giant has made the same leap as its American rival Amazon previously.

According to the chief engineer, investing in Meizu represents an important step in the company's overall mobile development strategy, with which it tries to deliver a wider range of mobile offers to users.

Meizu is not among the top smartphone brands. The top four in the fourth quarter of 2014 were Apple Inc., Xiaomi, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei Technology Co Ltd.