Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is seeking partners in Hollywood as China’s biggest e-commerce operator wants to acquire more content for smartphones and tablet computers, Jack Ma (馬雲) said on Monday.
Ma is visiting Hollywood to learn about movie studios because China’s film industry needs great cultural products, he told the WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, California.
The company has been inspired by Silicon Valley and believes it is time to invest in the technology hub, he said.
Alibaba, which completed its initial public offering last month, is looking for movies and television shows as it expands its entertainment content.
Ma and a team of Alibaba executives are meeting with representatives from some of the biggest Hollywood studios to seek deals for the rights to distribute US shows at home, or to invest in the companies, people familiar with the matter have said.
“I come here to learn, I want to come here looking for partners,” he said. “We worry about people with deep pockets but shallow minds, so movies are the best way to change Chinese young people’s behavior.”
China would become the world’s largest movie market as the middle class expands to 200 million people, Ma said.
“They need great culture products,” he said.
Alibaba released its first set-top box in collaboration with Wasu Media Holding Co (華數傳媒) in September last year. A month later, it launched another set-top box under the Tmall (天貓) brand, the name of one of Alibaba’s biggest e-commerce platforms.
Users of Alibaba’s set-top boxes can watch TV channels and high-definition movies, shop online and play games. Alibaba buys rights from studios that control films and TV content and shows them online for a fee, often by territory.
Ma also said the company is interested in working with Apple Inc’s new Apple Pay service.
“I’m very interested in that,” Ma said when asked if it made sense for his company’s Alipay Wallet mobile system to team up with Apple Pay. “As always, a good marriage needs both sides hard working. I respect Apple and respect Tim very, very much.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was sitting in the audience, took to the stage afterward and was asked about the possibility of a partnership.
“We’re going to talk about getting married later this week,” Cook said.
Alibaba is building its own online payment system Alipay as it tries to process more digital sales for small businesses.
Alipay has 17.9 million users overseas in more than 100 countries and is accepted by 2,000 merchants, Sabrina Peng, vice president for Alibaba’s finance arm’s international business, said this month.
The step-up in content acquisition comes as China’s set-top box industry faces increased government scrutiny. Alibaba’s Tmall MagicBox notified users in August it would update its system and delete some applications in accordance with regulations from the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Alibaba plans to expand in Europe, the US and Asia, Ma said during the initial public offering road show in Hong Kong. Ma, a 50-year-old former school teacher, is China’s richest person with a net worth of US$27.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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