Meitu, a China-based smartphone manufacturer, which started its operations in the year 2008, recently released its full year earnings report for 2018. The company reported that it generated revenue of 2.792 billion yuan, registering decline of 37.8 percent year-on-year.
The decline in the company’s total revenue is primarily due to the decline in the smartphone business. The company’s smart hardware revenue for the year 2018 was 1.843 billion yuan, registering decline of 50.7 percent year-on-year.
Along with reporting its financials, the company revealed that it will be completely shutting down its smartphones business in the mid-2019. Now, the development, production, and sales will be handled by Xiaomi — another China-based smartphone manufacturer. In return, Meitu will be getting a cut of the smartphone share.
In November last year, Meitu had announced a strategic partnership with Xiaomi Group under which it exclusively licenses its brand, imaging technology and second-level domain name of its mobile phones to Xiaomi. The imaging technologies include MTface face technology, MTsegment image segmentation, MTbeauty beauty, MTmakeup beauty technology, MTrestore image restoration, MTenhance image enhancement, MTpose limb detection, etc.
While the company had started its business in the year 2008, it officially entered the hardware market in Beijing and released the Mito mobile phone. Since then, the company has roped in several celebrities to endorse its products but due to the fierce competition in the smartphone market, it has become difficult for Meitu to survive.
