Video Sharing App VMate Got over $100M Investment from Alibaba

As video sharing apps go viral on social media, Alibaba invested over $100 million into Vmate, which is previously owned by its subsidiary UCWeb.

VMate chose the Indian market to start and will remain it as its key market, according to its press release.

“The fact that all of our Indian products can succeed shows that we have a good understanding of the market and that our team is a pretty good match,” said Zhu Shunyan, president of UCweb at Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Business Group.

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As UCWeb has grown quite a huge fan base since 2009, the browser-maker has tried to become a super app in India in recent years by adding news and video features.

Developed at the end of 2017, VMate now has global monthly active users of 30 million and has been downloaded over 100 million times on Google Play. It taps into the Indian young people’s interest in sharing their life and interacting with friends online.

VMate is one of a few innovation projects that UCWeb or Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Business Group has incubated. Within the nurturing system, the value of product and service to users is set as the only standard.

When certain products have attracted a certain number of users or have a clear path to grow, they will gain chances to grow independently once approved as VMate. VMate received the investment as an internal standout innovation project from Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Business Group.

“Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Business Group chooses to tap potential internally. We will work our own way up,” said Zhu.