Taobao Movie a part of Alibaba Pictures Group serving business to more than 90% cinemas in China has raised $260 Million in Series A Funding.

Taobao Movie is a leading web portal in China that owns a valuation of $2.1Billion. Part of Alibaba Pictures Group, it serves to more than 90% of business to cinema through online booking. The platform provides users to book tickets and seats as per availability. Recently it has raised $260 Million in Series A funding led by CDH Investment, Ant Financial Services Group and Sina.com.  The valuation itself reflects the success of company.

Launched in 2014 by Alibaba Group, the company connects more than 5000 theaters in China and later acquired by Alibaba Pictures. Being leading contributors of business to the box office, Taobao Movie plays well by offering lot of discounts. With many existing platform it is able to survive the competition in the most populous country and it is able to maintain its top position.  Primary factor behind the success is the competitive price it offers compared to existing platforms.

Taobao Movie is not just limited to selling movie tickets, it brings a strong marketplace to buy variety of things associated with movies and locate the best deals.  Even in a highly consolidated market, keeping the price at lowest has kept users engaged to use Taobao Movie.  Compared to buying tickets directly from cinema, because of online platform, users get cheaper tickets in advance with seat selection. In India we have BookMyShow as one of the leading platforms to book ticket online that offers similar service.

Takeaways:

• Taobao Movie raised $260 Million in Series A funding and has a valuable of $2.1 Billion.
• Even after having a stiff competition the platform is able to entice maximum users contributing 95% of business to theaters.
• It is acquired by Alibaba pictures after launched by Alibaba Group in 2014.