Hong Kong-based investment holding company Alibaba Pictures Group Limited announced on Tuesday that it now owns 100 percent of the cinema-ticketing system supplier Guangdong Yueke Software Engineering Company, after bidding $134 million (830 million yuan) for the ownership.
The procurement of the Software Engineering Company conveys that Alibaba is replacing its old low-efficiency information technology (IT) system with cloud computing and big data management.
Aside from Alibaba, companies like Southern United Assets and Equity Exchange have also bid $29 million (180 million yuan) for Yueke Software.
Alibaba's vice president stated that the company aims to further expand its business strategies and the ownership of Yueke Software was intended to establish an entertainment cloud platform.
Yueke Software provides movie ticket sales management, chain management, an e-ticket platform, mobile ticketing applications, third-party e-commerce platform access, and automatic display systems in China.
According to China Tech News, the purchase of Yueke is one the second biggest transactions Alibaba Pictures has done after receiving capital injection suggestion from Alibaba Group.
This year, China's ticketing market may attain $3.1 billion (19 billion yuan) in box-office revenues as well as 100 percent online ticketing in major theater chains, the investment holding company projected.
Entertainment and culture-related business, funding solutions for entertainment and cinema, a Taobao TV platform for virtual cinemas, and cinema-ticketing system are among the sections of Alibaba Pictures.
Alibaba Group bought ChinaVision Media Group Limited for HK$10 billion in 2014 and changed its name to Alibaba Pictures Group Limited.