The Chinese Film Market Magazine - BAT Marching into the Film Industry: A Timeline

BAT Marching into the Film Industry: A Timeline

Aug 29, 2025 CFM Daily, Industry, Production 0

China’s film industry has been exclaiming: “BAT is coming!” Internet companies Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have entered the film business. Any of their frequent mergers and acquisitions can have an impact in the local film industry. The list will be updated once new moves are made.

Baidu

August 27 iQiyi announced to build a joint venture with Huace Film & TV to make VOD films, TV series and variety shows. So Baidu, after acquiring iQiyi and PPS several years ago, will have the access to Huace’s huge content pool of its 26% share of Guo Jingming’s Shanghai Zui Culture Development.

August 21 iQiyi announced to screen online the films from the 71^st Venice International Film Festival. Previously iQiyi has cooperated with Shanghai International Film Festival and Cine Fan Summer IFF 2014 of Hong Kong International Film Festival in online screening.

July 17 iQiyi Pictures was announced to be established by iQiyi.com, a leading online video site affiliated with Baidu. It also announced to produce 7 local films and 1 Hollywood title with other film companies.

January 24 Baidu signed an agreement with Renren.com to acquire Nuomi.com, making Nuomi.com a fully-owned subsidiary of Baidu. Back in August 2013, Baidu had announced a $160 million strategic investment in Nuomi.com and became its largest shareholder holding about 59% stake. Nuomi.com is a popular group-purchase website in China and now positioned as a local lifestyle information provider.

Alibaba

August 5 Zhang Qiang, Former Vice President of China Film Group, was announced to be CEO of Alibaba Pictures.

June 11 Alibaba acquired UCWeb, a guiding provider of mobile internet software technology and services.

April 8 Yunxi Investment, run by Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Alibaba Group and Shi Yuzhu, founder of internet games operator Giant Interactive paid $1.05 billion for a 20% stake in Wasu Media, a state-owned media company. Alibaba and Wasu Digital TV Media Group will cooperate to build original content, video telecommunication, games, music, cloud computing, tec.

April 28 Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital acquired an 18.5% stake in China’s leading online video company Youku Tudou, with an investment about $1.22 billion.

March 20 Alibaba bought a 20% to 25% stake in the mobile IM app developer Tango for $215 million.

March 11 Alibaba Group bought a 60% stake in production company ChinaVision for $804 million, giving Alibaba access to some quality film and TV content and mobile social media business. It was then renamed Alibaba Pictures on May 23.

February 10 Alibaba offered to buy out digital mapping company AutoNavi Holdings Ltd to compete head-to-head with Baidu’s mobile map app. The deal valued AutoNavi $1.6 billion.

Tencent

August 27 Tencent and Huayi Bros. announced to build an O2O social entertainment platform Star Alliance. It will launch Tencent QQ service accounts, groups and clubs based on individual stars; support more O2O activities between the fans and their favorite stars; establish a star charm ranking and a fans dedication ranking system; a system with paid VIP priorities. Star-fans face-to-face parties and video games, tie-in merchandising, star radio or podcast, and star ringtones can also be expected.

June 27 Tencent (QQ.com), bought a 19.9% stake in 58.com, a Craigslist-like site, for $736 million.

May 5 Tencent bought an 11.28% stake in Navinfo for ￥1.17 billion yuan ($189 million), one of China’s major digital map providers.

March 10 Tencent signed an agreement with JD.com Inc. to take a 15% stake of the Beijing-based JD.com for $215 million while JD.com acquired the less popular online shopping platforms – wanggou.com, paipai.com and yixun.com from Tencent. JD.com Inc is China’s second largest e-commerce retailer by market share next to Alibaba.

February 19 Tencent announced to take a 20% stake in Dianping, China’s best-known restaurant rating and reviews website, which also offers a group-buying service.