Alibaba Pictures to Pay $134 Million For Ticketing Firm

Alibaba Pictures Group, the movie investment arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is to pay US$134 million (RMB830 million) to buy Yueke Software. The company is one of China’s top cinema ticketing systems suppliers.

Alibaba Pictures said that Yueke has supplied ticketing systems to over 1,000 movie theaters, and provided software systems to more than 30 third party ticketing firms. It says that the acquisition will help the film and e-commerce industries integrate and help moviegoers do more from their mobile devices.

“[The purchase will] help connect movie theaters with hundreds of millions of users of Alibaba Group and expand the existing customer group to include e-commerce consumers; create more opportunities for movie industries and e-commerce operators to cooperate and help movie theaters to generate a variety of revenue streams outside traditional box office revenues; and utilize big data and Internet technologies to provide effective services for industry participants,” Alibaba Pictures said in a statement.

Guangzhou-based Yueke last year reported sharply increased net profits of $1.93 million (RMB11.3 million). The company is jointly owned by a private collective and a Guangdong Province-backed state-owned enterprise.

Earlier this month Alibaba said that it was considering transferring some of its smaller movie assets and relevant technology start-up ventures into Alibaba Pictures Group. That helped propel the separately traded shares of Alibaba Pictures to record levels.

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