CHENGDU, Aug. 4 (NBD) -- A fortnight ago, the Chinese online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao announced that the films it partnered with had grossed over 7.3 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months of this year, making Taopiaopiao the largest of its kind in China.

Two days later, Alibaba Pictures Group Limited (01060, HK), the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba's flagship entertainment arm, said in a statement that it has invested 1.33 billion yuan (about 198.1 million U.S. dollars) in cash and acquired 9.12% more shares of Hangzhou Chenxi Multimedia Technology Co., Ltd, the owner and operator of Taopiaopiao. After the transaction, Alibaba Pictures will indirectly possess 96.71% shares of Hangzhou Chenxi Multimedia Technology.

Despite the fact that Taopiaopiao is still at a loss, the transaction clearly indicted Alibaba Pictures' resolution in winning the battle of the online ticketing platforms. 

Dubbed the investment as building the "new infrastructure" of the film industry, Alibaba Pictures said it will continue forging the ecological layout and business upgrade of the entertainment industry.

The online ticketing market structure is changing at the same time. In 2016, Maoyan, Taopiaopiao, Beijing Weying Technology Co., Ltd. and Baidu Nuomi were the major players in the market, however, Maoyan and Taopiaopiao grabbed 60% shares of the entire market by the Spring Festival in 2017.

In fact, the online ticketing platforms are deeply involved in movies' promotions and distributions, which becomes an important standard when measuring the value of an online ticketing platform.

"Among Alibaba Picture's future incomes, the non-box-office-returns including Taopiaopiao and other film derivatives will account for a large proportion", said Yu Yongfu, CEO of Alibaba Pictures Group Limited.

According to data released by bigdata-research.cn, the market shares that Maoyan, Beijing Weying Technology and Taopiaopiao took up in the first quarter of 2017 were 22.96%, 19.77%, and 15.79%, respectively. Enlight Media is the majority shareholder of Maoyan, while China's Internet behemoth Tencent is among the investors of Beijing Weying Technology.

A recent report said Tencent is promoting the merger of Maoyan and Beijing Weying Technology. While Beijing Weying Technology has rebutted, Maoyan has made no comment yet.

Email: lijia@nbd.com.cn