Alibaba plans to acquire an unspecified stake in the Chinese smartphone maker Meizu as part of the e-commerce company's foray into the mobile phone business, reported Xinhua News Agency on February 9. The deal is believed to push Alibaba's YunOS, its in-house developed operating system, on to more mobile phones and leverage Meizu's hardware design and offline sales channels to enrich Alibaba's ecosystem. In return, Meizu will have greater access to Alibaba's e-commerce sales channels, big data analysis, and payment services. According to China Internet Network Information Center, around 557 million people access the Internet via mobile phones in China.