Dive Brief:

• Chinese e-commerce-and-more company Alibaba has invested another $50 million in TV and cable remote app startup company Peel. Alibaba adds to its $5 million Peel investment from last year.

• Mountain View, CA-based Peel designs apps that remote-control televisions and cable boxes via mobile. Its Android app works with most televisions and cable boxes, while its iOS app works on Dish and DirectTV boxes.

• The move continues Alibaba’s investment strategies beyond retail and e-commerce.

Dive Insight:

While Alibaba says this investment has little to do with e-commerce, Peel already has 96 million users and its TV-remote app could be expanded more widely into the Internet of Things, according to many observers and to Peel itself. This kind of technology could easily eventually lend itself to e-commerce. In fact, it's probably just a matter of time.