The Netflix of China? Alibaba buys US$382 million stake in film and TV production company

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Alibaba founder and executive chairman of Jack Ma Yun gestures during a recent speech at National Taiwan University. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:15am, 5 Mar 2015Updated: 1:26pm, 19 Jun 2015

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is continuing its expansion into entertainment by buying a US$382 million stake in production company Beijing Enlight Media.

The Chinese film and TV maker said in a filing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it had sold 2.4 billion yuan of shares to an Alibaba Group subsidiary this week, or around 8.8 per cent of the company.

In the past year, Alibaba has bought a majority stake in ChinaVision, since renamed Alibaba Pictures Group, a 16.5 per cent stake in online video giant Youku Tudou, and an 8 per cent stake in another Chinese production company, Huayi Brothers.

Alibaba seems to be positioning itself to become China's answer to Netflix, the hugely successful US streaming video service. According to iResearch, China's online video market is expected to more than double to 90 billion yuan by 2018, from around 36 billion yuan this year.

Alibaba is attempting to expand and explore new profit streams beyond its core e-commerce business. On Tuesday, shares of Alibaba were down more than 2.5 per cent at US$82, a record low since the company launched the world's largest IPO in the US late last year. The firm has also recently come into regulatory trouble in both Mainland China and Taiwan.

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