Alibaba, Yunfeng, Sina launch sports business
Alibaba Group has set up sports unit alongside Chinese internet company Sina Corporation and Yunfeng Capital, a PE firm backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Financial details were not disclosed, although a statement said that Alibaba Sports Group will be majority-owned by the Chinese tech giant. Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang will serve as chairman of the new unit, while Dazhong Zhang, formerly vice president of state-controlled Shanghai Media Group (SMG), will serve as CEO.
Alibaba Sports Group is expected to integrate e-commerce, media, marketing, video, home entertainment, cloud computing and other internet-enabled technologies to create a sport-focused platform. It will involve in different aspects of the sports industry, including copyrights, sports media, events and ticketing.
"Alibaba Sports Group aims to transform the China sports industry through the use of internet-based technologies to bring greater and better products and services to consumers, sports participants and sports fans alike," noted Daniel Zhang.
In China, annual revenues in the sports industry stand at just $10 billion, but the government wants the industry to be worth RMB5 trillion ($780 billion) by 2025 and has rolled out policy initiatives to support this effort.
Jack Ma and Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin have made significant investments in related businesses. Four months ago, Yunfeng and Wang's Dalian Wanda Group led a RMB800 million Series A round of funding for LeTV Sports, a Chinese sports channel.
Alibaba has forged partnerships with football clubs Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, NBA star Kobe Bryant, and last year paid $192 million for a 50% stake in local football team Guangzhou Evergrande in June 2014.
Meanwhile, Wanda bought Infront Sports & Media, a Swiss sports marketing firm from European PE firm Bridgepoint for EUR1.05 billlion ($1.2 billion) and last month agreed to acquire World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), the leading global operator of Ironman events, from Providence Equity Partners for $650 million.
Yunfeng, which is also co-founded by Target Media's David Yu, raised around $1.1 billion for its second fund in May last year. Alibaba committed $100 million to the vehicle.
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