China hosting site eyes bigger slice of film industry

Youku Tudou, China’s largest video hosting website, announced the creation of its own film studio Thursday in a move to capture a larger slice of the film industry.

中国最大的视频网站优酷土豆周四宣布将设立自己的电影工作室，以便从中国电影市场分得更大份额。

Victor Koo, chairman and chief executive of the company, said the film division, Heyi Film, would produce eight films per year destined for the big screen and a further nine aimed to premiere on the internet. The group, which last week announced a loss of $26m for the second quarter despite increased revenues, has not revealed how much it plans to spend on the project.

优酷土豆首席执行官古永锵表示，这个名为合一影业的新电影公司将每年制作八部大屏幕电影，还会制作九部首发于互联网的影片。就在上周，优酷土豆曾宣布，尽管第二季度营收出现增长，该季度合计却亏损了2600万美元。目前，该集团并未披露打算往合一影业投入多少资金。

Mr Koo said Youku had $1.6bn in cash to spend after a $1.2bn investment by ecommerce group Alibaba in April. “We’re very strong,” he said.

古永铿表示，在今年4月获得电子商务集团阿里巴巴的12亿美元投资后，优酷土豆目前可支配的现金高达16亿美元。他说：“我们的现金非常充裕。”

Youku had been making its own content since 2009, starting with “microfilms” lasting a few minutes, and last year helped produce eight feature films that had a combined box office of 2bn, Mr Koo said. It planned a number of new releases in the coming months such as Golden Era, a film about China writers in the 1920s scheduled for release in October, and The Taking of Tiger Mountain, a 3D epic.

古永铿表示，优酷自2009年开始就一直在制作自己的视频，起初是长度只有几分钟的“微电影”。去年该集团帮助制作了八部电影，票房总收入达20亿元。在今后几个月，它计划出品多部新影片，包括定于今年10月发行的《黄金时代》，该片讲述了上世纪20年代中国作家的故事，以及3D史诗巨作《智取威虎山》。

Virtually all of China’s video hosting sites make their own content, and this year has seen a trend to build separate studios or to acquire content producers. In July Iqiyi, which counts Baidu, China’s largest search engine, as an investor, launched an in-house studio with eight films in the works. In June Alibaba completed the acquisition of a majority stake in ChinaVision , a video content maker.

中国几乎所有视频网站都在制作自己的视频内容，今年甚至出现了一个新潮流，即这些网站成立独立的电影工作室或收购内容制作商。今年7月，依靠中国最大搜索引擎百度的投资，爱奇艺启动了一个内部工作室，正在制作八部影片。今年6月，阿里巴巴收购了视频内容制作商——文化中国传播的多数股权。

The bid to move from small smartphone screens to big screens, and the reverse, is driven partly by strong growth over the past three years in films. China’s industry is the second largest after the United States, expected to gross between Rmb28bn to Rmb30bn this year.

过去三年，中国电影业强劲增长，推动业界从智能手机屏幕向大屏幕——或者相反——的迁徙。目前，中国是仅次于美国的第二大电影市场，预计今年票房总额将在280亿人民币到300亿人民币之间。

Cinemas are multiplying, at an average rate of 18 screens a day. Last year China added more screens that the total in France.

中国的电影院数量也在成倍增长，平均每天增加18块银幕。中国去年一年增加的银幕数就超过了法国的电影银幕总数。