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Alibaba warns of half-year losses

The Chinese e-tailer's Alibaba Pictures division has predicted losses of over $50m just months after announcing the launch of a concert ticketing arm

By IQ on 22 Jul 2016

Jack Ma, Alibaba Group (Alibaba Pictures), Jolanda Flubacher

Jack Ma, founder and CEO of the Alibaba Group

image © Jolanda Flubacher

Alibaba Pictures has issued a loss warning following its aggressive expansion into live event ticketing earlier this year.

The company, a subsidiary of the world’s largest ecommerce company, Alibaba Group, blamed the larger-than-expected losses on marketing costs associated with the expansion of its Tao Piao Piao movie ticketing business, which IQ revealed in May was moving into ticket sales for concerts and live events.

However, the losses – estimated to be between US$52 and $58 million – are largely the result of an unexpected downturn in China’s film box office.

Alibaba Pictures raised CN¥1.7 billion ($260 million) in series-A financing in early May, which brought the value of the company to over ¥13.7bn ($2.09bn).

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