Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is becoming an entertainment empire. On Monday Alibaba's digital media and entertainment unit announced the establishment of a new brand "Taomailang" - which will provide updated services based on its ticket-buying app Damai.
Catering To The Masses
The new service will standardize operations of on-site services for large shows and movie screenings, create paper-free ticket purchasing and checking processes and establish intelligent infrastructure at show sites, a company representative said.
The company claims the service meets international standards and has received International Organization for Standardization certification in quality management, information safety management, occupational health and safety and environment management.
Alibaba acquired all of online ticketing app Damai.cn in 2017. It handled an average of 30,000 shows annually from 2017 through 2019 - serving 30 million users each year. The shows ranged from A-list music concerts to events such as China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference and the Basketball World Cup.
Starting from 2018, nearly 1,000 shows promoted on Damai utilized paper-free ticketing. As of 2019, paper-free projects increased to 26,000 - meanwhile the app saw an increase of 300% in users.
Analysts said the execution of paper-free ticketing helps the environment but, on the other hand, inevitably opens users' preferences and personal information to big data collection - which ultimately helps Alibaba in shaping its entertainment business.
Ditching The Niche Market
Lacking the profile of Tencent Music's three services - QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo - or NetEase Cloud Music, Alibaba's Xiami Music attempts to be more artistic and targets niche markets.
There were rumors in China last week that Alibaba may close this music app next year. Alibaba hasn't made any announcement.
The news stirred netizens because Xiami's interface design, indie music library, genres, initiatives and its whole "vibe" are regarded as incomparable.
Xiami Music was China's first company providing music streaming services - and the first to offer master quality authenticated, a technology that enables top quality streaming of music on all devices.
Within the 14 years since its establishment, the company has attracted 28.17 million users and is ranked the fifth biggest music app. QQ Music has 316.44 million users. Xiami Music currently sees 14.4 million monthly active users.
Xiami Music users complained that "(Alibaba) never had any artistic intention to develop the platform."
Alibaba Group bought Xiami in 2013 and music player app Ttpod to compete with Tencent - whose digital music spinoff Tencent Music Entertainment went public on Nasdaq two years ago. Alibaba bought a $700 million stake in competitor NetEase Cloud Music in 2019. This was seen as an effort toward replacing Xiami Music.
As a user-generated-content app, Xiami failed to see an increase in users during the booming rise of short-video and livestreaming platforms.
