Browser developer Opera Software has established a joint venture with Telling Telecom, a major mobile phone distributor in China. The goal is to develop a customized mobile browser for the Chinese market.
The joint venture will enable the partners to combine Opera’s core browser technology with local content, operations and Telling’s distribution network within China. The registered capital of the joint venture will be 135 million RMB (roughly $20.5 million).
Through an investment over three years, Opera Software will own up to 40 percent of the joint venture company. Opera also disclosed that it is guaranteed a minimum amount of revenue from the JV, corresponding to its initial investment.
Opera says more than 100 million people use its mobile browsers on a monthly basis. There’s a chance you’ve never heard of the other party, Telling Telecom, though it boasts more than 9,000 employees and an 18 percent market share of the mobile phone distribution industry in China. The company ships more than 30 million mobile phones every year.
Telling says it will use all its resources, including 116 branch offices from some 25 subsidiaries (which control more than 40,000 retailing outlets across the country) to put Opera’s mobile browser(s) into every single mobile phone.