LeEco
 | |
Native name | 乐视网信息技术(北京)股份有限公司 |
|---|---|
Formerly called | LeTV |
| Private | |
| Traded as | SZSE: 300104 |
| Industry | entertainment industry |
| Founded | November 2004 |
| Founder | Jia Yueting |
| Headquarters | Chaoyang District, Beijing, China |
Area served | China, United States and India |
Key people | Jia Yueting (Chairman and CEO)[1] |
| Brands |
|
| Revenue | US$1.6 billion (2014)[1] |
Number of employees | 5000 |
| Slogan |
Shared ecological world 共享生态世界 |
| Website |
www.le.com www.LeEco.com |
Leshi Internet Information & Technology, also known as LeEco (Formerly Letv), is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest online video companies in China. It is headquartered in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Founded in November 2004 by Jia Yueting, LeEco Group is building a "Le Ecosystem", an online platform with content, devices and applications. LeEco is engaged in myriad businesses, spanning from Internet TV, video production and distribution, smart gadgets and large-screen applications to e-commerce, eco-agriculture and Internet-linked electric cars, which were announced in late 2014.
It has launched four smartphones under its Le brand - the Le 1, Le 1 Pro, Le Max and Le 1S. The four dual-SIM smartphones are claimed to be the first in the world to come with USB Type-C ports. LeEco Group also consists of the film production company called Le Vision Pictures.
The company has 5,000 employees, and is expanding to other countries such as the United States[2] and India.[3]
History
Jia Yueting founded Shanxi Xi Bei Er Communication Technology Co., Ltd. In 2003, he founded[4] Xbell Union Communication Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. which was listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange in 2007. In 2004 he founded Letv.com, which was listed on Start up Board in China. In cyber-video field, Letv.com owns most wide-ranging copyrights of TV series and movies in the industry.
The Group comprises a number of subsidiaries, including Letv.com, Leshi Zhi Xin, Le Vision Pictures, Wangjiu.com, Letv Holding, Letv Investment Management and Le Mobile. In 2014, the aggregate sales of the Group amounted to approximately RMB 10 billion.
In August 12, 2010 the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, making it the world's first IPO company in the sector. It was also listed on China's A-share market. As of March 24, 2015, the market value of Letv[5] amounted to RMB 84 billion. Letv.com currently offers more than 100,000 episodes of TV dramas and over 5,000 movie titles. In addition, the site draws an estimated 250 million page views per day, 350 million users per month, 100 million daily content viewers on mobile devices, and 10 million daily content viewers on large-screen TVs.
Letv Hong Kong, as the headquarters of Asia Pacific region, was officially set up in August 2014, marking an important milestone of the company's expansion in the overseas market. The company provides Hong Kong with an established combined ecosystem of "Platform + Content + Terminal + Application". Letv has teamed up with 3 Home Broadband, subsidiary of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited, allowing customers to enjoy the best home entertainment experience with high speed broadband. As of March 2015, Letv has held 10 online flash sales in Hong Kong, with 1,000 smart TVs sold in less than 10 minutes on every occasion. Currently, Letv Hong Kong offers various sales channels for potential smart TVs customers to accommodate massive demands, including online pre-ordering services and 50+ offline outlets in Hong Kong and Macau. It provides over 800 hours of 4K programmes in Hong Kong.
In August 2015, the brand also surpassed sales of Apple's iPhone. Since the company launched its flagship phone Le Max in July, sales shot up for two consecutive months, according to a latest report from Sino Market Research, a subsidiary of Germany research company GFK. The report says, for online high-end phone (Over US$472/unit) market in China, Le Max has become the top seller ahead of Apple and Samsung. In August 2015, LeTV ranked No.5 for taking 4.5% online smartphone market by selling approximately 427,000 units, including Le 1, Le 1Pro and the flagship Le Max.
The company with employee strength of 5,000 has a market capitalization of around $12 billion on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It has also started making its own smart TV to stream its content.
It is China's first company to head the concept of 'ecosystem' products. The company has one of the largest content libraries including movies, TV dramas, entertainment shows, concerts, and sports games, which could be viewed on Letv's terminals, like phones, TVs and electric vehicles, and these terminals could be interacted through Letv's eco-network.
Products
Letv Music
Letv.com announced in Hong Kong that they have established a music company.[6] Yǐn Liàng (尹亮), core creator of Letv's music business, was appointed chief executive officer of the new Letv music company, while Lei Zhenjian was appointed chairman. Letv music is one of the many music video content creation and 4K content in China. It is the only music video provider that covers PC, phone, tablet, and TV terminals.
The company is looking to become an Internet music technology company that united the value chain of the music industry. The company is planning to create a music industrial ecosystem with IP, Internet, hardware, and value-added services.
Letv has been integrating the upstream IP sector and may implement more capital investment. The company will also tap the concert O2O business model. Moreover, it is expected to launch music hardware before the end of 2015.
Letv Sports
Letv Sports, the sports arm of China's Letv Holdings Co Ltd, Letv Sports[7] completed its first round of financing. As a young start-up established in 2014, Letv Sports Culture Develop Ltd has raised 800 mn RMB (US$128.8 million) in Series A funding, valuing the video-streaming business at 2.8 billion yuan (around US$451.1 million), setting a couple of new records in funding capital and expected market value.[8]
Letv Sports gathers the most powerful team members including Lei Zhenjian, Sina and Letv's former editor-in-chief, Liu Jianhong and Huang Jianxiang. Having evolved from a page on the Leshi movie and TV site letv.com in 2012 into a paraentity streaming live sports events, including NBA and NCAA basketball games from the United States, Letv Sports now shifting toward an all-round sports media business
Smart TV
Letv’s online video streaming service has been receiving positive response in China and Letv Holdings Co Ltd introduced six new smart TV[9] products in Hong Kong. Based on the Le Ecosystem, the newly launched third generation of super TV sets, in two major series and three flagship models, are all priced lower than the hardware costs, said Liang Jun,president of Le Shi Zhi Xin, the TV business arm of Letv. Design features a nice simple border design and basic alloy stand. Pricing of these TV’s is for the Chinese mainland.
SuperTV Series 3 was announced in September, 2015 with 5 models currently available thru the LeMall.com. The flagship model Max65 of a 4K 65" Smart TV prices at a low price of HK$10999 with 6 months of free English Premier League subscription.
One of the LeTV popular video streaming shows has been the Go Princess Go series.[10]
Le Mobiles
Chinese online video content service Letv has unveiled three high-end smartphones in its home market — Le 1, Le 1 Pro and Le Max. The company has teased the arrival of their Snapdragon 820 smartphone.[11] Some Le Max 2 & X Pro details surfaced, and the company’s mid-range Le 1S smartphone surfaced on AnTuTu. April 2016 LeECO launched 3 New Models Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2. [12]
Letv Cloud Computing
Letv Cloud invented the VaaS (Video-as-a-Service) model in 2014 and this concept was in relation to IaaS, PaaS, SaaS in Cloud Computing.[13] VaaS model is based on cloud computing, big data, and video technologies. It is founded on Internet-wide content aggregation, combining aggregation, distribution and derivative capabilities. Letv Cloud provides the best of public cloud service with a global multi-device and multi-layer distribution system. It aims to provide extraordinary video service to users anytime, anywhere and without any barriers.
Letv cloud,[14] the cloud computing-based video open platform of Letv.com, and Microsoft jointly held a press conference in Beijing and announced that the two parties have inked a deal for solution compatibility.
With this cooperation, Letv cloud video-related solutions will be compatible with Microsoft's public cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure in the future. Letv cloud video solution will be like online software and Microsoft Azure will be like a hardware platform which allows Letv cloud solutions to run on Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.
Letv cloud video open platform has cloud video-on-demand, cloud live, and content delivery network solutions and those solutions cover various sectors, including broadcasting and TV, e-commerce, education, media, animation, and smart home.
Driverless Car
Letv setup their electric vehicle branch in January 2015 and launched a concept model with Faraday Future at CES 2016. It also tried to lure in more talents in the field to develop their own products such as hiring Ni Kai (Chinese: 倪凯), who was the former director of Baidu's driverless car project.[15] In April 2016, LeEco presented its very first model of its self-driving car named LeSEE Super EV on a press conference in Beijing. [16]
References
- 1 2 Clifford Coonan (May 28, 2015). "China's Letv Plans to Raise $1.2B to Bankroll New Projects". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Letv plans to invades U.S. smartphone market - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "China's LeTV plans foray into Indian smartphone market - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "Jia Yueting | leaders | China Cultural Industry Association". www.chncia.org. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "LeTV Creates E-tail History by Notching up Sales Worth USD 280 Million in a Single Day". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "Letv Establishes Music Company - ChinaTechNews.com - The Technology Source for the Latest Chinese News on Internet, Computers, Digital, Science, Electronics, Law, Security, Software, Web 2.0, Telecom, and Wireless Industries". ChinaTechNews.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "LeTV Sports gets EPL rights for Hong Kong[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ http://www.allchinatech.com/leecos-sports-subsidiary-confirms-usd-1-1b-in-series-b-funding/
- ↑ "LeTV debuts new smart TV products - Business - Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ Huang, Zheping. "This viral internet comedy about time travel and bisexuality has suddenly been banned in China". Quartz. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
- ↑ "Letv Confirmed Plans To Release Smartphones In India | Androidheadlines.com". AndroidHeadlines.com |. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ http://smartfonearena.com/what-all-know-about-leeco-le-max-2/
- ↑ "Letv Cloud Reaches Cloud Computing Deal With Microsoft Azure - ChinaTechNews.com - The Technology Source for the Latest Chinese News on Internet, Computers, Digital, Science, Electronics, Law, Security, Software, Web 2.0, Telecom, and Wireless Industries". ChinaTechNews.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ "Letv Cloud Announces the Worldwide Video-as-a-Service Model in London". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
- ↑ http://www.allchinatech.com/former-leader-of-baidu-driverless-car-joins-tech-giant-leeco/
- ↑ "LeEco launches smartphones, TVs, and self-driving concept EV". AllChinaTech. Retrieved 2016-04-22