Latest update July 2nd, 2015 11:12 PM
Alibaba’s Yulebao Pushes Further Into Entertainment Industry
SHANGHAI June 23, 2025 - Alibaba’s crowd-funding platform Yulebao is expanding its territories in the entertainment industry. The company announced a number of partnerships during the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival.
A cooperation agreement with Hong Kong’s Television Broadcasts (TVB) was revealed at Yulebao’s one-year anniversary celebration. The two parties will co-produce TV series and introduce TVB’s series into Alibaba’s yet-to-be-launched home entertainment system. Further details will be disclosed in the next three months.
Yulebao is also going to work with Shanghai-based Yoozoo Culture and Media Co to produce THE THREE BODY. Yoozoo has garnered a lot of attention for its online game background and its focus on sci-fi and fantasy films since its establishment. Yoozoo’s CEO Kong Xiangzhao said they Alibaba’s powerful in-house data makes it a strong partner for movie production and distribution.
Another deal was a partnership with Up Pictures, which was invested by Huayi Brothers Media. The company specializes in fantasy and adventure films and has bought out the copyrights of a bunch of novels written by Tianxia Bachang, who is famous for GHOST BLOWS OUT THE LIGHT series. Yulebao will invest in one of the novel-adapted films, DEATH CYCLE, for which director-actor Xuzheng acts as executive producer.
Furthermore, singer Richie Ren revealed hestablisheme would hold a concert for his fans through Yulebao. “In the past, we could only guess what the audience wanted. But now thanks to Yulebao, we are able to get more information about their preferences,” he said.
“We hope that Yulebao will help solve financing difficulties, no matter it is for established talents or emerging ones, and will allow Chinese users to invest in various projects they are interested in,” said Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba Digital Entertainment Group, at the anniversary celebration.
Yulebao provides an expected annual return of at least 7 percent on the film investment. It has successfully raised about 560 million yuan ($90 million) for more than 20 movies involving over 10 million users since its establishment last year. For those who invest through Yulebao, they may be given priority tickets of the film, chances to get a closer touch with the stars or other film-related privilages.
The company also presented an award to actor Feng Shaofeng as recognition of his popularity and influence at the one-year anniversary celebration and said the result was based on the in-house data analysis.
“Yulebao serves not only as a financing tool but also as a bridge to connect film stars with their fans,” Liu said.
A report was released during the anniversary celebration stating that the post-90 generation has been the dominating age demographic on the entertainment industry in China and the fan-oriented ecosystem is making a stronger presence.
According to the report, young stars like Kris Wu Yifan and Lu Han have the largest fan communities on the Internet and social media platforms such as Weibo have been their fans’ most popular gathering places.
Liu revealed Yulubao’s next move is to get involved in Hollywood films and the company has been in discussion with some Hollywood producers to see if users could invest in their projects.
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