HONG KONG – (ACN Newswire) – As the movie and entertainment market in China gears up to embrace the Chinese New Year holiday, one of its busiest seasons of the year, Maoyan Entertainment, a leading platform providing innovative Internet-empowered entertainment services, is celebrating its listing today on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
The stock code for Maoyan is 1896, which has special meaning for Maoyan as it is the year that the movie industry started in China.
“Going public is a new beginning for Maoyan to empower and grow together with the entertainment industry in China,” said Zheng Zhihao, CEO of Maoyan Entertainment. “As an ‘Internet + Entertainment’ platform, Maoyan will continue to leverage the power of internet and innovation to make entertainment easier and simpler for consumers and industry players and create long-term value for the industry and our shareholders.”
Leveraging Internet to make entertainment easier and simpler
Maoyan is now the largest online movie ticketing platform in China, with monthly active users (MAU) averaging 134.6 million and a market share of 61.3%, as measured by GMV of movie tickets sold in the first nine months of 2018, according to the iResearch Report. It is also the second largest ticketing services provider for entertainment events in China.
As a one-stop entertainment consumption platform, consumers can easily discover content and make informed decisions based on a wealth of entertainment information, user-generated ratings and commentaries. They can enjoy comprehensive entertainment services, including ticketing, IP-derivative merchandise and in-venue food and beverage pre-ordering.
“We strive to leverage the power of Internet to enable consumers to easily discover and enjoy quality entertainment,” Zheng said. “Meanwhile, we are seeking to transform content creation, promotion and distribution with Internet and enable our business partners to easily enhance their operations and performance. With our ‘Internet + Entertainment’ strategy, Maoyan has grown from an online movie ticketing service provider to a leading integrated platform in the entertainment industry empowering upstream and downstream players along the value chain.”
Maoyan was the first in China to provide Internet-based promotion and distribution services for movies and has since expanded such services to a broad range of entertainment content. Maoyan has become the largest lead distributor of domestic movies in terms of China gross box office. In the first nine months of 2018, Maoyan provided entertainment content services for movies that contributed to over 90% of the gross box office in China.
“Maoyan is well-positioned to expand along the movie industry value chain and into new entertainment sectors, including live music performance, sports events, TV series and variety shows, based on our capabilities and resources, such as our extensive user coverage, brand recognition, data and technology, industry insights and operation expertise,” said Zheng. “We have become an integrated platform with unique analytics, services, and industry resources offering valuable services to our partners.”
The powerful network effects have shaped Maoyan’s ability to capture commercial opportunities arising from its ecosystem and expand to attractive business areas along the entertainment value chain and across entertainment formats, further enhancing its growth potential, added Zheng.
Creating long-term value for the industry
With strategic partnerships with Tencent, a leading social media platform, and Meituan Dianping, a leading e-commerce platform for services, consumers can easily access Maoyan’s platform through Tencent’s Weixin and QQ apps, Meituan app and Dianping app.
“Our relationships with Tencent and Meituan Dianping are complementary and mutual beneficial,” said Zheng. “These partnerships help Maoyan broaden our user reach and enhance our brand awareness. Maoyan’s large user base, advanced technology and continuous provision of products and services are also beneficial to our partners’ service offerings to their own users.”
“We will continue to strengthen our business cooperation with both Tencent and Meituan Dianping because the strategic partnerships will give us a competitive advantage in respect of user traffic and media resources and further strengthen our market position,” said Zheng.
Besides user access, Maoyan has also developed close partnerships on content resources with leading content producers in China, including Huanxi Media Group, Mahua Fun Age, Edko Films and New Classics Media, etc. In its strategic partnership with Huanxi Media Group, Maoyan has the right to investment and exclusive distribution and promotion right to all movies, TV series and online shows from Huanxi Media Group.
“As a public company, Maoyan will continue to empower the entertainment industry with better products and services and grow together with the industry,” said Zheng.