Alibaba Pictures raises $260M for its online movie ticket platform –
Summary
Other investors listed in the disclosure include several Chinese entertainment companies that can serve as strategic partners for Taobao Movie, like Hehe Pictures, BONA Film, and Huace Media. According to analysis from Chinese market research firm BigData-Research, group deals site Meituan and Dianping (the two merged in October) held more than half of the online movie ticketing market as of the third quarter of 2015, with the rest divided among other, much smaller players like Taobao Movies, Baidu-backed Nuomi, WePiao (another Tencent investment), and Gewala. According to research from Tencent and Meituan, more movie ticket sales were made online than offline for the first time last year. The competition among online platforms has benefited Chinese moviegoers by not only making it easier to buy tickets, but also driving prices down. In its disclosure, Alibaba Pictures Group said that Taobao Movie’s Series A “will be used to sustain its operations and further strengthen its market position in a competitive and fast developing business segment.”