TV and film production company Shanghai New Culture Media Group has led a RMB 1bn ($155m) funding round for a newly formed online video subsidiary of China-based internet company Baidu, China Money Network reported today.
The round also included private equity firm SAIF Partners, according to an announcement on Baidu’s Weibo account.
According to a regulatory filing today, Game developer Dalian Zeus Entertainment has agreed to provide RMB 250m for Baidu Video as part of a strategy to expand its online media offering, but it has not been confirmed whether the investment forms part of the RMB 1bn round.
Baidu already owns iQiyi, an online video streaming platform that competes directly with Youku Tudou and Tencent Video at the top of the Chinese video streaming market, but Baidu Video is being spun out from its parent company to concentrate on original, professionally generated content (PGC).
Baidu also intends to put an initial RMB 500m into a specialist PGC fund that will support content creators for the platform, and plans for Baidu Video and iQiyi to complement each other as well as Nuomi, the group buying service that Baidu pledged $3bn of funding to in June 2015.
The firm has not disclosed how closely the unit will work with Shanghai New Culture Media, but the studio has in the past collaborated with iQiyi on the production of TV shows.