China’s Alibaba, the largest e-commerce operator in the world by sales on its online platforms and stock market value, is using its major e-commerce marketplaces and technology chops to promote a recent foray into the Chinese movie and entertainment business.
Last year Alibaba invested $804 million for a 60% stake in ChinaVision Media Group and renamed the group Alibaba Pictures. Alibaba announced yesterday on its company blog it is using its giant shopping platforms, including Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com, to help create and distribute digital entertainment. Taobao is Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplace for some 7 million mainly smaller sellers, while Tmall hosts storefronts for such major brands as Nike and Apple.
“The company will leverage Alibaba Group’s cloud computing and big data technologies to help tap customer demand and create a comprehensive ecosystem for its film and television production and marketing businesses,” Zhang Qiang, CEO and executive director of Alibaba Pictures said in a statement.
Alibaba says it will analyze consumer shopping patterns and behavior on Taobao and Tmall to create customized movies and TV programs while marketing and distributing them across Alibaba’s platforms according to consumers’ wants and needs, Zhang said.
In addition to streaming digital entertainment, Alibaba Pictures says it will partner with retailers selling on Alibaba shopping sites to design and sell licensed products related to its movies, TV and other digital entertainment.
Alibaba will sell and promote licensed products on sites such as Taobao Marketplace, with hundreds of millions of users, Zhang said. Alibaba Pictures will also encourage ticket sales through Alibaba-related e-payments provider Alipay. The company says it is working closely with Taobao to improve the system for booking and buying movie tickets for cinemas online.
China’s box office receipts grew about 36% to $4.8 billion in 2014, Alibaba writes in its blog post. The company says second- and third-tier Chinese cities will be its main target for box office ticket sales as many theaters in the largest cities are already overcrowded.
Alibaba also announced its pictures unit has signed two major Chinese entertainment figures for a new movie project—the first since it acquired a controlling interest in the Hong Kong-listed entertainment company now known as Alibaba Pictures.
Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai will produce and TV actor Tony Leung will star in “Bai Du Ren,” (which means The Ferrymen), a romantic drama based on a short story by mainland Chinese author Zhang Jiajia, according to Alibaba Pictures.
Wong, the first Chinese director to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his movie “Happy Together” in 1997, has worked with Leung on several films, including Wong’s “In the Mood for Love,” released in 2000, for which Leung won the Best Actor Award at Cannes. Zhang will write the script and direct.
In addition to “Bai Du Ren,” Alibaba Pictures has acquired film rights for “My Fair Princess,” a romance novel written by Chiung Yao that was the basis for two popular Chinese TV series. The company also has overseas distribution rights for “Wolf Totem,” a best-selling novel being made into a movie due for release early this year.
Favorite