27 August 2015.
The Chinese tech giant Alibaba has released its own-brand smartphone.
Alibaba teamed up with Maizu to produce the smartphone, which is affordably priced and aimed at the low-end Chinese smartphone market.
It is not the only Chinese internet company that has entered the Chinese smartphone market. Earlier this year, Qihoo 360 released a new smartphone that cost just 399 Yuan, equivalent to £41 or $63.
The news comes as the more-established Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced its plans to enter the African smartphone market.
Xiaomi will start selling its smartphones in 14 African countries from next month, following its success in China and India.
It is following hot on the heels of Google, who released its latest cheap smartphone Hot 2 in Africa just a few days ago, as part of its Android One initiative.
The Android One initiative aims to produce affordable smartphones running on the latest version of Android for customers in developing countries.
The Hot 2 smartphones are being sold in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and the Ivory Coast at a cost of 88 US dollars.
