Meitu, the tech company best known for its image-processing app MeituPic (美图秀秀, sometimes Meitu Xiu Xiu, or just Meitu), has recently received a large investment, from none other than Alibaba. Alibaba has been divesting and selling off its “non-core” businesses, so the recent investment in Meitu was seen as a departure from the previous strategy.
The 250 million USD investment was agreed upon by both parties in the form of a convertible bond, meaning that although it is a bond, Alibaba has the option to convert it into shares in Meitu in the future. According to Meitu’s announcement, the bond will be for 3 years with an interest rate of 1%. Meitu also pledged to procure no less than 560 million RMB (77.75 million USD) worth of cloud service from Alibaba in the next 3 years.
Other than its popular image editing and processing apps, Meituan has also launched several AI tools, such as AI video app Wink and MOKI, as well as AI design tools like WHEE and DesignKit (美图设计室). DesignKit, notably, was created for e-commerce use.
Alibaba, the owner of platforms such as Tmall and Taobao, is one of the top e-commerce companies in China, if not the world. With its “all-in” AI strategy, Alibaba likely sees Meitu’s AI tools as a key motivator behind this investment. In fact, Alibaba has been investing in AI companies since 2024. This includes investing 600 million USD in MiniMax last March to acquiring 36% of AI startup Moonshot AI (月之暗面) last May for 800 million USD. There were also reports of Alibaba investing in Stepfun (阶跃星辰). With Alibaba working to reshape its strategy, especially around integrating AI into e-commerce, and competitors like JD.com also investing heavily in the technology, these investments seem only natural.