Xiaomi announces a partnership with Meitu to sell Xiaomi phones under the Chinese selfie app maker's brand, with Meitu “still involved” in camera software
Context & Ripple Effects
Meitu entered this partnership from a position of audience, not manufacturing: the company behind China's viral selfie apps had hundreds of millions of monthly users and a multibillion-dollar valuation per earlier coverage of the selfie-app maker. By 2019 it was chasing growth abroad, including a 31% stake in game publisher Dreamscape Horizon as part of an international push.
The deal lets Meitu put its name on hardware it doesn't build — Xiaomi makes the phones, Meitu stays involved in the camera software that made its apps famous. It also foreshadows Xiaomi's later playbook: in 2022 the company signed a long-term partnership with Leica for jointly developed phones, making branded imaging partnerships a recurring Xiaomi strategy.
First-order effects
- Xiaomi gains a selfie-focused sub-brand aimed at Meitu's massive existing user base without developing new camera software itself.
- Meitu gets a hardware channel and brand extension at near-zero manufacturing cost, complementing its app business as it looks beyond domestic app revenue.
Second-order effects
- Rivals competing for the same selfie-driven buyers — Oppo, Vivo and other Chinese brands — face pressure to match camera credibility through their own optics or software partnerships rather than spec-sheet alone.
- For Meitu, hardware licensing becomes a second leg alongside apps and investments like the Dreamscape stake, diversifying revenue if app engagement plateaus.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — Meitu in 2018, Leica in 2022 — smartphone camera differentiation consolidates around licensed brands and co-engineered imaging pipelines, weakening the premium that in-house camera R&D once conferred.
- App companies with strong computer-vision IP gain a template for monetizing through hardware branding deals instead of building devices themselves.
The trend: Smartphone makers are increasingly renting camera credibility through brand partnerships — Xiaomi with Meitu here, later Leica — as imaging software becomes the differentiator hardware specs can't buy.