Alibaba pictures a subsidiary of Jack Ma’s Alibaba group has secured series A funding to the tune of $260M. Alibaba pictures run an online movie ticket platform Taobao Movie. After this funding Taobao Movie’s valuation stands at $2.1 billion. Taobao Movie was brought by Alibaba pictures from its parent company in November 2015.
Taobao Movie lets Chinese movie lovers book movie tickets for around 5,000 movie theaters in China. Alibaba Pictures Group last year also bought Yueke Software engineering, a movie ticketing software company for $134M. Online movie ticketing is a crowded space all over the world. There are already a number of players in online movie ticketing business in China.
Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, said:
“The completion of this Series A Financing demonstrates that the business strategy, market prospects and operational capability of Taobao Movie has been well recognised by the industry. With the support of more abundant resources and capital, we will continue to create greater value for our partners, investors and the market.”
This round of funding was led by CDH Investments, Ant Financial Services Group, and Sina.com.
