E-commerce company Alibaba Group is planning to raise a RMB10bn ($1.48bn) fund targeting China’s entertainment and cultural sectors, according to Chinese media reports, which cited an internal letter by CEO Daniel Zhang.
The fundraising efforts will be led by Gu Yongqiang, previously chief executive of video streaming platform Youku Tudou, which Alibaba acquired in November 2015 for $4.4bn. His replacement at Youku has not yet been named.
News of the fund’s possible establishment came alongside the formation today of an umbrella holding company called Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group which will oversee all Alibaba’s entertainment subsidiaries.
The subsidaries in question include Youku Tudou, mobile browser UCWeb, Alibaba Pictures, Alibaba Music, Alibaba Gaming, Alibaba Literature and Alibaba Digital Entertainment.
The unit will look to aid the digitisation of Alibaba’s cultural output and strengthen its market share in the consumer leisure sector.
Yu Yongfu will serve as chief executive of Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment and report to Daniel Zhang. Yongfu joined Alibaba in 2014 when it acquired UCWeb, of which he was chief executive.
Zhang said in the letter: “Alibaba’s cultural and entertainment ecosystem will integrate with our e-commerce, financial services, logistics and cloud ecosystems to enrich our services to users.”