Alibaba Pictures, the film production arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced on Monday that it will purchase convertible bonds worth RMB one billion (USD 154 million) in an offline cinema chain DADI DIGITAL CINEMA Corporation (Dadi Cinema) to improve its coverage in the entertainment industry.
Apart from capital investment, Alibaba Pictures will also work with Dadi Cinema to promote movies and develop relevant e-commerce businesses including selling movie tickets online.
Zhang Qiang, the CEO of Alibaba Pictures, said cinema is an important consumption scenario in the entertainment industry and Alibaba Pictures, which aims to connect the entire entertainment industry, cannot turn a blind eye to it.
To date, Alibaba Pictures has connected many parts of the entertainment industry including IP development, film production and promotion, entertainment e-commerce and international operations.
According to Chinese reports on information released by Alibaba Pictures, its total revenue in 2015 reached RMB 264 million, a year-on-year growth of 108.3%. Its net profit was RMB 466 million in 2015 while it lost RMB 417 million in 2014.
Founded in 2006, Dadi Cinema had 313 cinemas and 1662 screens across 150 cities in China including Beijing and Shanghai as of April. But the company mainly targets customers in second-tier and third-tier cities, and even in much smaller cities. In 2015, it served 71.5 million moviegoers and its revenue reached RMB 2.2 billion, a YoY increase of 47%.
According to China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, China’s national box office revenue in 2015 totaled RMB 44 billion, a YoY increase of 48.7%.
(Top photo from mt.sohu.com.)
