Alibaba buys top online ticketing platform Damai
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 22, 2017
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced on Tuesday that it has fully acquired China's biggest online ticketing platform, Damai.cn, as part of its big entertainment strategy.
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A logo of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. [File photo] |
"We have just completed the acquisition of Damai and we have been major shareholders of Damai since July 2014," said Yu Yongfu, chairman of Alibaba Culture & Entertainment Group, in an open letter to his staff, without revealing the value of the purchase. "This is an earnest three-year romance, and it is a genuine and natural marriage," he added.
Cao Jie, one of the founders of Damai.cn, will serve as a special advisor for Damai, while Zhang Yu, vice president of Alibaba Group, will be the CEO of Damai.
Damai was founded in 2004, and controls over 70 percent of China's online ticketing services including for concerts, stage dramas, sports matches and more. Damai also owns various creative brands in showbiz, sports, and films.
Damai founders Cao Jie and Feng Yuhong said in another statement that Damai once focused on becoming China's answer to American ticketing giant Ticketmaster, but now, it will become China's equivalent to Live Nation.
Yu said Damai will first link its services to Alibaba's music group. "The online ticketing will connect to the music division, sharing the data of users, while fans, artists and ticketing platforms will be linked and have interactions online and offline." Alibaba also has eyes on exploring virtual reality technology for music show businesses.
Alibaba's big entertainment strategy sector consists of UCweb, Alibaba Music Group, Youku Tudou, Alibaba Pictures, as well as mobile games, literature and sports divisions, in addition to Damai.
It has already become the third biggest core business and revenue source, just behind Alibaba's e-commerce and cloud computing services. As of Dec. 31, 2016, its digital entertainment services had revenue of 4.06 billion yuan -- a 273-percent increase year-on-year.
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