China’s Xiaomi adds e-books to its arsenal of services for smartphones

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi makes money primarily via its software — a highly-customizable MIUI firmware, which is based on Android, and the sale of themes, apps and in-game purchases.

Now it’s adding one more item to that list: e-books. Specifically, e-books that are aggregated from other content providers and sold in Xiaomi’s store, Tencent Tech reports.

Xiaomi’s e-book business will be run by Duokan, which makes apps for the Kindle, smartphones and the Apple TV, and which Xiaomi acquired nearly a year ago. Users will be charged three CNY cents for every thousand characters, and the proceeds will be split evenly between Xiaomi and the content providers.

Headline image via Hugo Barra / Google +