Youku Tudou, China’s largest video hosting website, announced the creation of its own film studio Thursday in a move to capture a larger slice of the film industry.
Victor Koo, chairman and chief executive of the company, said the film division, Heyi Film, would produce eight films per year destined for the big screen and a further nine aimed to premiere on the internet. The group, which last week announced a loss of $26m for the second quarter despite increased revenues, has not revealed how much it plans to spend on the project.
Mr Koo said Youku had $1.6bn in cash to spend after a $1.2bn investment by ecommerce group Alibaba in April. “We’re very strong,” he said.