Latest update April 1st, 2015 6:34 PM
Jet Li Joins Alibaba Pictures as An Independent Director
Two months after obtaining the investment from Alibaba Group, China Vision Media Group Limited (China Vision) announced a new name, Alibaba Pictures Group on May 23. Subsequent changes also happened to its new board of directors including Jet LI, the film star and three executives from Alibaba Group, namely, SHAO Xiaofeng (Chief Risk Officer), ZHANG Wei (Senior Vice President) and Alex LIU Chunning (Manager of Digital Entertainment Group ).
Jet Li’s cooperation with Jack MA (Founder of Alibaba) has been enhanced since signing the long-term agreement between One Foundation (a non-profit foundation built by Jet Li) and Taobao on the latter’s 5th anniversary in 2008. The two came to know each other thanks to shared enthusiasm in Buddhism and zen. In 2011, they founded a company called Taiji Zen to “promote Taiji as a way to a balanced and healthy life”.
China Vision also unveiled the acquisition details and the ambitions of Alibaba, declaring the new controlling shareholder will keep the company’s current businesses, including the production and distribution of films and TV series, but will also further expand the new media business in terms of content innovation, investment, production and distribution.
Besides, the company has depicted a blueprint of big data and set four goals: first, to produce more audience-targeted films and TV series in C2B model based on big data, cloud computing technology, and the E-business platform of Alibaba; second, to create suitable contents for certain groups of audiences in some certain regions by analyzing the audiences’ preferences; third, to market and distribute the media products through the platform of Alibaba; last but not least, to establish e-commerce platforms focusing on the promotion and sales of different cultural and entertainment products. Specific agenda is yet to come though.
As for the money financed from Alibaba, the announcement said 40%-50% of it will be used for the expansion of its current businesses, but not limited to the production of films, TV and internet plays, 5%-10% for daily operation and the rest for other media businesses. The company has planned to invest in 8 to 10 films, 3 to 5 TV series, and 3 to 5 internet dramas every two years.
Although China Vision has always collaborated with celebrities like Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow and Peter Chan, the company is known to the audiences only for its investment in some successful films and TV series, including JOURNEY TO THE WEST: CONQUERING THE DEMONS, the highest-grossing film of 2013. In September 2009, the company signed a contract with Stephen Chow, planning an investment of 10 million yuan (about 1.6 million US dollars) in his five movies in the coming seven years. Later in 2013, Vicol Entertainment, the subsidiary of China Vision, established a joint venture with Chow to build a Cineplex, but there is no knowledge of whether or not the program will be continued after Alibaba’s investment.
China Vision is the first holding cultural subsidiary of Alibaba. As the Chinese E-commence giant is about to go public in the U.S., Alibaba recently stroke frequent deals in the cultural industry, including its strategic cooperation with Wasu Group, the investment in Youku Tudou, China’s biggest online video company, and its recent launch of Yulebao, a cultural investment product.
Alibaba’s deployment in the cultural industry now seems clear: Yulebao as the investment model, China Vision as its content producer, Youku Tudou as its broadcasting platform, along with the broadcast license, content resources and channels of Wasu and its own TV system and hardware.
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