TCL smart TVs are going to start featuring Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (OTCMKTS:TCEHY) video content.
The move unites the largest social media and gaming company in China teaming up with the country’s largest maker of television sets. This deal will have TCL smart TVs coming with the video content from Tencent already installed on them.
Tencent says that the decision to team up on TCL smart TVs doesn’t mean it has an interest in making its own hardware. Instead, the company says that it wants to better support hardware makers.
Adding video content to TCL smart TVs is a good way for Tencent to get its services in front of viewers and better spread its name. TCL sold 20 million LCD TVs in 2016 and roughly half of them were smart TVs. Tencent Video is also the largest video streaming service in China, reports Reuters.
Tencent’s decision to add its content to TLC smart TVs comes after an investment in the company. Tencent invested $66.18 million into Shenzhen Thunderbird Network Technology, which is a subsidiary of TLC. It also makes the content maker the second-largest investor in the subsidiary.
Tencent’s investment in TLC comes after it has been making some strange investments. This includes an investment earlier this year in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). The investment had it buying up $1.8 billion worth of TSLA stock. This makes it the fifth-largest shareholder of Tesla Inc.
TCEHY stock was down 2% as of Wednesday afternoon, but is up 44% year-to-date.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
