China Literature acquires production company New Classics Media

With this operation, China Literature, a company in which the Chinese internet giant Tencent has a 52.6 percent stake, intends to enter the audiovisual entertainment industry.

The Chinese e-book company China Literature has invested 2.3 billion dollars in the film and television production company New Classics Media.

With this operation, China Literature, a company in which the Chinese internet giant Tencent has a 52.6 percent stake, intends to enter the audiovisual entertainment industry.

The purchase of New Classics Media comes as Chinese technology giants step up their investment in intellectual property and streaming rights in the media sector. The largest internet companies in China, which has a mixed record on copyright protection, have begun to prioritize developing a set of unique media assets as users demonstrate a growing willingness to pay subscription fees for original content.

The transaction will combine China Literature's content library and NCM's experience in script development and production. In China, a third of the top fifty films and a quarter of the top television series are literary adaptations. The figure scales to more than 50% for web series.

Wenhui Wu, co-CEO of China Literature, said: "Users increasingly demand high-quality video entertainment content, which in turn drives demand for adapted literary works. We are pioneers and leaders in the online literature market and are providing source material for China's most-watched TV series and movies. Further enhancing our expertise in content adaptation is a natural step for China Literature to unleash the commercial potential of our content library, drive integrated title development. successful and improve the engagement of our writers and users.”

Tencent's video platform (Tencent Video) has 63 million users, surpassing Netflix's 53 million. Its music streaming service Tencent Music Entertainment gained a valuation of $12.3 billion based on a share swap with Swedish music streaming giant Spotify.