E-commerce company Alibaba bought a majority stake in AdChina, a China-based digital advertising technology platform backed by media group News Corp, for an undisclosed sum yesterday.
Founded in the US in 2007, AdChina runs an online advertising network focused on the Chinese market. It filed for a $100m initial public offering on Nasdaq in February 2012 but withdrew it in early 2013 due to legal issues involving Chinese companies filing in the US.
The 2012 regulatory filing revealed that News America, a subsidiary of media group News Corp, owned 9.2% of AdChina. Venture capital firms GSR Ventures, Richmond Global and Norwest Venture Partners held 29.9%, 14.9% and 10.9%, respectively.
AdChina raised $10m in a series A round led by GSR in 2008, subsequently receiving an undisclosed amount from a 2009 series B led by Richmond Management that also featured News Corp and GSR. It then secured $40m in a Norwest-led series C round in 2010.
AdChina will work with Alibaba’s marketing arm Alimama as well as its cloud computing unit Aliyun to develop an end-to-end marketing service which Alimama can offer to merchants on its marketplaces.