SAIF participates in $155m round for Baidu video unit

Shenzhen-listed Shanghai New Culture Media Group led the round, having committed RMB500 million for a 17-22% stake, it said in a filing. Dalian Zenus Entertainment, another publicly-traded company, invested RMB250 million.

Hao Hu, former manager of Baidu's video business department, has been appointed as CEO of the new unit.

Baidu Video It will operate independently of Baidu and focus on professional generated content (PGC). It will also be separate from Baidu's online video-streaming service iQiyi and movie ticket selling platform Nuomi Movie. The three parties - Baidu Video, iQiyi and Nuomi - will work together and become the main pillars in Baidu's cultural, entertainment and content business, according to a statement posted on Baidu's Weibo microblog.

Baidu Video claims to have accumulated more than 580 million videos and over 300 million users on its platform. In addition to the recent fundraising, it has also launched a RMB500 million investment vehicle that will support the development of high-quality content.

China's internet giants - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT) - as well as strategic players are trying to monetize changes in media consumption, driven by rising disposable incomes and rapid adoption of handheld devices. They are creating their own industry value chains that run all the way from origination to distribution.

In February, Baidu CEO Robin Li proposed to take iQiyi.com private in a deal that values the video streaming business at $2.8 billion. IQiyi has about 10 million paid subscribers who watch more than 1.28 billion hours of content every month, making it one of the largest internet video-streaming businesses in China.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Venture
• Media
• China
• SAIF Partners
• Baidu
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• TMT
• Growth capital