Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s cinema unit continues to expand its film and cinema services, as it announced on June 2, Tuesday, that it has acquired a major cinema software service provider in China, the China Daily reported.
The company confirmed the report and said that it bought Guangdong Yueke Software Engineering Co. for 830 million yuan ($134 million). Alibaba said Yueke will become its wholly owned subsidiary after completion of the deal which would allow it to offer better services to cinemas by taking advantage of Yueke's Internet resources.
According to the report, more than 1,500 of 5,780 cinemas in China rely on Yueke for software solutions and support.
The report added that the acquisition is part of Alibaba's broad strategy to enter into the culture and entertainment sector. As part of this expansion, the e-commerce giant acquired in March an 8.8-percent stake in Beijing Enlight Media Co. Ltd., a TV content and film producer, worth 2.4 billion yuan.
To integrate its entertainment business, the company merged in April its online movie ticketing and movie production crowdfunding businesses into Alibaba Pictures.
Huang Guofeng, an analyst at Internet consultancy Analysys International, said that the acquisition shows Alibaba's presence across the whole movie industry chain in the country.
"Yueke is deeply involved in all aspects of theater management systems, such as seat-booking and arranging cinema schedules. Yueke can help Alibaba lay down a technology infrastructure for its entertainment platform," Huang was quoted as saying.
"With the purchase of Yueke, Alibaba has also become the first Internet giant, compared with its major rivals Baidu, Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., to expand into all movie-related businesses," Huang added.
The report said that Alibaba's strong effort to attract film buffs came in time after China became the world's second-largest cinema market last year, second only to North America.
The total box-office receipts in China hit 29.6 billion yuan in 2014, according to data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.