Samsung buys streaming startup mSpot to take on iCloud and Google Play

Electronics giant Samsung has purchased streaming media startup mSpot, the companies announced today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal is rumored to be worth an estimated $8.8 million, according to South Korean news site Mael Business.

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MSpot’s service functions similarly to Google Music or Amazon’s Cloud Player. Users can upload the digital media (music, movies, TV shows) stored on their computers into the cloud via an mSpot app. That media is then accessible on a handful of smart devices through mSpot’s app, which is available on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Google TV. Users get 5GB of storage for their media for free. The mSpot streaming music service also offers users a Pandora-style smart-radio functionality, while the video service is geared more towards making new movie purchases.

As part of the acquisition deal, Samsung will feature the mSpot app on its devices, including smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. Strategically speaking, Samsung will likely develop the mSpot service as a way to compete more evenly with Apple, which offers a digital media store as well as plenty of streaming functionality via its iCloud service.

The move will also allow Samsung to steal attention away from the Google Play Store, which is easily integrated into Samsung devices running Google’s Android operating system. It will be interesting to see if Galaxy smartphones and tablet owners use the mSpot service instead of Google Play — and to see how Samsung plans to draw users away from Google Play to the mSpot service.

Founded in 2004, mSpot has previously raised $2.3 million from Trinity Ventures.