LeEco's CEO takes over as the new chairman of Coolpad

After launching Super3 series Ecosystem TV in India, Chinese tech giant LeEco has appointed its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jia Yueting as Chairman of another leading Chinese smartphone player Coolpad aiming to strengthen its stronghold in emerging markets like India.

With strong technology capacity and wide user base from Coolpad, LeEco is set to further revolutionize the smartphone market with its unique “ecosystem” business model, where multiple products and services ranging from the smartphone to electric car are interconnected.

This move came after LeEco bought 11 percent share of Coolpad with HK$1.047 billion (US$135 million) in June this year in addition to an HK$2.74 billion (US$353 million) purchase of 17.9 percent shares last June. With a total of 28.9 percent stake in Coolpad, LeEco has become the sole controlling shareholder of the company.

Commenting on the announcement, Yueting said, "LeEco and Coolpad will adopt a dual-brand strategy where the two brands co-exist and target at different market segments. The two will also collaborate extensively in resources sharing, business development as well as technology research."

With this development, LeEco and Coolpad, who have a strong presence in India, are expected to sell nearly 50-60 million units to become one of the top four players in the Chinese industry among competitors such as Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi.

As per the company, Coolpad's technologies and patents will speed up LeEco's global expansion while LeEco's ecosystem of "platform, content, hardware and application" will be available to Coolpad users.

Following the $2 billion acquisition of Vizio by LeEco last month, the latest dual-brand strategy will be applicable to LeEco and the US consumer brand Vizio for the development of a complete TV ecosystem.