In March last year, Cultural China announced that Alibaba had invested HK$ 6.24 billion in a 60% stake, which meant that Ali valued Cultural China at HK$ 654.38+004 billion. This is about twice the market value of Cultural China before it was acquired. However, after buying 60% of the company's shares, Ali was not worried. He quickly discovered all kinds of financial problems of this company and launched an investigation.

Until the end of 65438+February last year, Alibaba Pictures announced the provision for impairment of about HK$ 393 million, which directly led to a large loss. 65438 This year1October 26th, Alibaba Pictures issued its first profit warning since its establishment, saying that there may be a major loss of up to HK$ 600 million in 20 14.

In addition to financial problems, various changes have taken place in the company's original business before Ali entered the company. It is reported that after Ali took office, many old employees of Cultural China also left their jobs one after another.

Dong Ping, the former chairman of Alibaba Pictures, also reduced his shareholding by 625 million shares at HK$ 1.5 on the sidelines on October 22nd, 65438, involving HK$ 938 million, and his shareholding decreased from 62 1% to 3.23%.

But for the future of Alibaba Pictures, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei are optimistic. On February 20th last year, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei bought 193 billion shares at a price of HK$ 0.6 per share, which is almost the highest price in Alibaba Pictures in recent months.

The latest news is that CEO Zhang Qiang will also be deeply bound with this company.

65438+1On October 28th, Alibaba Pictures announced that Zhang Qiang would acquire 2 1.67 million shares of the Company at the price of1.67 Hong Kong dollars per share. 1.67 HK dollars is almost the highest price in Alibaba Pictures in recent months. Some netizens said that Alibaba Pictures was almost supported by a blank piece of paper with a market value of over HK$ 30 billion, which also meant that Zhang Qiang had to lead Alibaba Pictures to put all his eggs in one basket and profit from the capital market.

□ Beijing News reporter Zheng Beijing reports

Ali fell into the "financial trap" of cultural China.

Since 20 14, internet giants have successively laid out the film field. Tencent established Tencent Film+,Baidu established the Film Division, Youku and Iqiyi established He Yi Film and Iqiyi Film respectively ... It is not difficult to find that most of these Internet companies have bred film projects within their own companies or set up subsidiaries specializing in film.

Different from the endogenous development of these companies, Ali directly acquired a listed company-Culture China. 20/kloc-in March, 2004, Ali announced that it would acquire nearly 60% equity of Cultural China by subscribing for new shares.

Cultural China is a film and television drama production company, headed by Dong Ping, a "big shot" figure in domestic film and television circles. This company invested in the domestic box office champion "The Demon of Journey to the West" in 20 13, and obtained 30% equity in this project, and has long-term cooperation agreements with many film circles such as Stephen Chow, Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kexin and Chai Zhiping.

Ali's high valuation of Cultural China surprised many people in the industry.

Ali invested HK$ 6.24 billion to subscribe for nearly 60% equity of Cultural China, which means that Ali's valuation of Cultural China is HK$ 654.38+004 billion. Just the day before Ali announced his shareholding, the market value of Cultural China was only HK$ 5.34 billion, while Ali's valuation of Cultural China was almost twice that of this company.

This heavily acquired company has not yet enabled Ma Yun to realize the rapid layout of the film business. Last June, Ali completed the transaction and later renamed the company Alibaba Pictures. It was not until June 65438+ 10 this year that Alibaba Pictures released its first project, The Ferry Man.

On August 15 last year, Alibaba Pictures announced the suspension of trading, saying that after a preliminary review of the financial and operating conditions, the new management found that "there may be improper financial handling and insufficient provision for asset impairment in previous accounting periods".

The suspension lasted more than four months, and the resumption of trading was 65438+ February 22 last year. During this period, Ali hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to investigate many financial problems before the company became a shareholder, which can be traced back to 20 12 12 3 1.

In the end, Alibaba Pictures announced the provision for impairment of about HK$ 393 million, which directly led to the company's substantial losses in the first half of 20 14. The main reason for these impairments is that some subsidiaries have some shortcomings in paying taxes and applying tax rates when selling works of art, movies and TV copyrights in the Mainland.

Impairment of assets is only one of the reasons for Alibaba Pictures's large loss in performance. On the other hand, it is the delay of the original film and television distribution business of the company.

20 15, 1 month, Alibaba Pictures announced that the loss for the whole year last year may reach HK$ 600 million. The reason is that some TV series scheduled for 20 14 were postponed, and some films scheduled for release last year were cancelled or postponed. In addition, the magazine industry is depressed, and the operation team has changed (Cultural China also owns the operation right of le figaro magazine).

Assets behind the market value of more than 30 billion

Alibaba Pictures's share price fell due to the expectation of a big loss in performance.

Before the suspension of trading in August last year, Alibaba Pictures's share price was above HK$ 1.6 per share for a long time. However, from the resumption of trading on February 22, 65438 to this year's1October 22, the stock price has been below 1.5 Hong Kong dollars. It was not until the news that Zhao Wei and his wife held shares recently that the share price rose to around HK$ 1.6.

This share price, corresponding to the market value of Alibaba Pictures, is already HK$ 32.6 billion, equivalent to RMB 26 billion. If it is placed in A shares, it is already the third largest company of film and television companies, second only to Huayi Brothers and Light Media.

A Hong Kong stock analyst told the Beijing News that the market value of HK$ 32.6 billion has been discharged into nearly 10% of Hong Kong stocks, but Alibaba Pictures's business has not been fully started.

Some investors said in the investor forum: "Only the imagination of Alibaba Group and the long-term cooperation agreements between the company and several film and television cafes support the market value of Alibaba Pictures of more than HK$ 30 billion."

Before Ali took office, Cultural China signed long-term cooperation agreements with Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kexin, Chai Zhiping and Stephen Chow, and paid 50 million yuan in advance to these four film and television veterans.

Because of this, Alibaba Pictures got the investment share of the film "Dear" and shined brilliantly in the 20 14 National Day file. The first project "The Ferry Man" announced by Alibaba Pictures on 20 15 was supervised by Wong Kar-wai.

In addition, Alibaba Pictures's assets include the film adaptation right of Princess Pearl and the overseas distribution right of Wolf Totem.

Zhao Wei, Zhang Qiang and Alibaba Pictures are deeply bound.

Unlike Dong Ping, former chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Pictures, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei, who have a good personal relationship with Ma Yun, invested in Alibaba Pictures.

Alibaba Pictures received a huge investment of HK$ 365,438+billion from Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei. The investment price was HK$ 1.6, which was higher than the closing price of HK$ 1.54 last Friday.

In other words, Zhao Wei and his wife's shareholding has experienced a floating loss. In an interview with the media, Alibaba Pictures responded: "Since the stock has not been sold, the so-called devaluation is inconclusive. Alibaba Pictures will have a series of big moves next, and Zhao Wei will definitely not lose money by buying our stock! "

Company CEO Zhang Qiang may be more expensive than Zhao Wei.

On October 28th, 65438/kloc-0, Alibaba Pictures announced that it had granted 285 million stock options, of which 2 1 10,000 shares were obtained by CEO Zhang Qiang, and the stock options were valid for 10 years. However, the option price is HK$ 65,438 +0.67, which is higher than the current share price.

This also means that if Zhang Qiang really wants to gain capital gains from equity incentives, he must strive to make Alibaba Pictures's share price greatly improved.

Is the combination of "Alipay+China Film" reliable?

Ali is injecting new blood into this company.

Some employees in Alibaba Pictures told the Beijing News that the company has launched a large-scale recruitment plan, and almost all the employees recruited are post-90s, while some "old people" with China culture have quietly left their jobs.

Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, said in an interview with the Beijing News, "The average age of our main movie audience is 2 1.8 years old, which is very young, but the average age of main directors may be the largest in the world." In his view, filmmakers must be younger.

When choosing which movie to invest in, Alibaba Pictures's principle is "grounding gas". Zhang Qiang said that because the main audience are young people, they are all immersed in the internet, so the film should conform to their aesthetics from actors to lines. "Sometimes watching some movies, the lines are very wrong. This kind of film is very dangerous at first glance. "

Alibaba Pictures's first important film was not a big production, but an emotional comedy directed by best-selling author Zhang Jiajia. This kind of investment seems to imitate the success of Jing M.Guo and Han Han in the film field. In this regard, Zhang Qiang responded that big stars and big directors are not the guarantee of movie box office. In contrast, he is more willing to rely on data such as sales, clicks and word of mouth of popular literature.

In the film distribution business, Zhang Qiang proposed to build the largest distribution team in China. At present, this rumor has been quietly fermented in the film circle. In the field of film distribution, Light and Letv are the two best in terrestrial network distribution.

The so-called ground network distribution, in layman's terms, is similar to the promoters stationed in supermarkets by manufacturers. Their task is to help movies get a larger proportion of movies in theaters. Zhang Qiang said that this distribution team will be built by the business backbone of Ali B2B, with as many as 200 to 300 people in the future, and one person will be responsible for 10 cinemas.

The tasks assigned by Zhang Qiang to these ground network teams are completely different from those of previous film distribution companies. In Zhang Qiang's words, it is through Alipay's user data system to help the theater develop Alipay users around 3 kilometers into members of the theater. On the other hand, the ticketing system of these cinemas will be "built" on the platform of Taobao movies in the future.

Similar to Ali's practice in the field of e-commerce, Zhang Qiang wants to move all the ticketing systems of national cinemas to Alibaba Cloud; Different from the existing online ticketing websites, in the future, Ali stressed that he would not sell tickets himself, but only open the system to allow cinemas to sell movie tickets on Taobao movie platform.

In addition, Ali also intends to establish an e-commerce platform for national cinemas for free. "When the audience watches a movie, they can pay for derivatives by pointing their mobile phones at the screen and finally deliver them to their homes." Zhang Qiang said: "Because the profit is generated in the cinema, we share it with the cinema."

For such plans, a senior official of the four major domestic film companies said: "If these plans can be truly realized in Alibaba Pictures, then this company will gain huge imagination, but this series of grand blueprints need specific implementers, and Alibaba Pictures still has a long way to go."

A person who has been engaged in cinema management for a long time in China told the Beijing News reporter that Ali has a platform for Taobao movies and has a good advantage in online distribution. Doing a good job online can already be very convincing to the cinema. A huge underground distribution team will certainly help guide users and organize activities, but it may be necessary for Ali to do such a large-scale offline distribution.

■ Dialogue

Ma Yun's Film Complex

Interview with Alibaba Pictures CEO Zhang Qiang

Ma Yun encountered many setbacks in the process of starting a business. He once said that the movie Forrest Gump encouraged him to stick to it.

Since it was renamed Alibaba Pictures in June last year, the listed company has not officially released its development strategy, but only released the first film of the main investment in June this year at 65438+ 10.

With a market value of over HK$ 30 billion, Alibaba Pictures is the third domestic film and television company in terms of market value, second only to Huayi Brothers and Enlight Media. The future direction of this listed company has always been a topic of concern to many investors.

On June 5438+ 10 this year, Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Beijing News. He said that Alibaba Pictures should build the strongest ground distribution team in China, serving not only cinemas but also audiences, and turning hundreds of millions of Alipay users into cinema members.

Beijing News: Why did Ma Yun make a movie?

Zhang Qiang: There are emotional reasons and rational considerations for Ali to make movies.

Emotionally, Mr. Ma encountered many setbacks in the process of starting a business. He once said that it was the movie Forrest Gump that encouraged him to stick to it, and this complex was deep. On June 5438+ 10 last year, General Manager Ma led a team to Los Angeles, specially went to the studio of Paramount, sat in the chair where Forrest Gump sat and took a photo.

On the rational side, I had an in-depth talk with General Manager Ma. He mainly took a fancy to the development space of China film market. In the future, this market will reach 200 billion yuan, with great room for growth and needs to be improved.

We all agree that in the market size of 200 billion, box office accounts for only one third, derivatives account for one third, and pay-per-view accounts for another third. But outside the box office, the other two pieces are almost blank now, and blank is exactly what Ali wants to do.

Beijing News: Online VOD, you once said that it would cost more than 6 billion yuan to buy copyright. Is that so?

Zhang Qiang: You may misunderstand this piece. Alibaba Pictures, a listed company, did not do it, but the digital entertainment business group under Alibaba Group. Alibaba Pictures and Ali cooperate in digital entertainment.

Beijing News: What's the difference between Ali and ordinary film and television companies?

Zhang Qiang: We will pay more attention to the aesthetic expectations of the younger generation of viewers and take big data as the primary reference condition.

We are going to shoot the favorite movies of young audiences in China, mainly focusing on three categories:

The first category is fantasy movies, especially Hollywood blockbusters, which bring the vision to the extreme; The second category is local comedies with feelings. The third category is youth love and nostalgia.

In the future, fantasy blockbusters will be the mainstay, and comedies will be the mainstay. For fantasy blockbusters, the story is made in China, so you can ask foreign teams to do special effects.

Our next movie is to the sky kingdom, which is also a super bestseller. We attach great importance to the value of IP, which may be books, comics and games.

Beijing News: What are your requirements for theme selection?

Zhang Qiang: What we have to do is something grounded. I have always emphasized the word "grounding gas".

The main audience now is young people, a relatively new, independent, distinctive and personalized generation. This generation, they adapt to all kinds of impacts brought by the Internet, from actors to lines, must conform to their aesthetics. Sometimes it's dangerous to watch movies with bad lines.

Beijing News: Alibaba Pictures has not publicly released its corporate strategy since its establishment, and some investors are puzzled. What will Alibaba Pictures do in the future?

Zhang Qiang: We have to do three things: the first is the "O2O movie mode", which is a movie mode combining online and offline; The second is to open up an e-commerce model in the film and television drama business; The third is to shoot movies and TV series.

Beijing News: Many people are making the movie O2O. What's different about Ali?

Zhang Qiang: In the past, we saw that the online distribution of movies was Guevara and Cat's Eye. Offline distribution is LeTV and Light.

In the future, we will have both online Taobao movies and the strongest ground distribution team in China. In the past, the iron army of Alibaba B2B had more than 10000 people. Our ground troops were formed by transferring core members from B2B. There will be two or three hundred people, and one person will be in charge of 10 cinema.

The support point of the market value of more than 30 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Signed a long-term cooperation agreement with the film and television giant: Cultural China signed long-term cooperation agreements with Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kexin, Chai Zhiping and Stephen Chow.

Market gap: derivatives, pay-per-view

Constraint between management and company: CEO Zhang Qiang will subscribe for shares.

Star Shareholder Platform: Alibaba Pictures received a huge sum of HK$ 365.438 billion from Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei.

"Alipay+China Film" combined strategic model