Alibaba Pictures pitches in to lure movie audiences
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed film-making unit Alibaba Pictures is looking to combine the resources at Youku's movie streaming platform and its online ticketing service Taopiaopiao to help attract more movie audiences and expand along with its partners.
Alibaba's digital entertainment business group, which covers both the movie-making unit and online streaming affiliate Youku, hopes to offer more membership benefits and joint loyalty programs for online and offline movie viewers to encourage spending on cinema viewing at theaters as well as through online channels.
"We also hope to drive more synergies with other core businesses which would eventually serve the film industry by bringing more audiences to long-form movie works," Li Jie, Alibaba Pictures senior vice president and president of Taopiaopiao, said in an interview during the ongoing 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival.
The domestic film industry, which has seen a rather flat box office growth compared to a few years ago, and film professionals need to catch up with audience demands which have evolved quickly in recent years, he noted.
China's box office growth slowed to 9.1 percent last year from the double digit increase in previous years.
"Using our data capability and service, such as assessing potential viewers' sentiment ahead of the official screening, we hope to become a crucial part of the promotion and distribution process for films of all genre from home and abroad," Li revealed.
The booming popularity of user-shot short videos on platforms such as Douyin, or TikTok, and Kuaishou are gradually dragging Internet users away from movie screens, especially younger viewers who now have a variety of entertainment formats.
On the bright side, however, this offers film producers new ways to attract and interact with viewers, he pointed out.
Alibaba Pictures said last year it's seeking to co-produce 20 films over the next five years. It's also collaborating with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners to co-produce and finance cinema works as well as partner on marketing, distribution and merchandising of Amblin Partner films in China.