ChinaUS EUROPEASIA 中文双语Français
Business\Companies

Baidu raises $1.5 billion to beef up video-streaming site

By Dai Tian | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-02-22 13:11

Baidu raises $1.5 billion to beef up video-streaming site

A live show award ceremony held by iQiyi in Shanghai, Jan 14, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

China's leading search engine Baidu said on Tuesday that it has raised $1.5 billion (10.5 billion yuan) to bankroll its video-streaming platform iQiyi.com amid increasing competition.

Baidu invested $300 million as part of a convertible bond issuance. Other investors include Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, IDG Capital and Sequoia Capital China, the company said.

"iQiyi has been a quality asset and an important part of our ecosystem," Baidu chief executive Robin Li Yanhong said in a statement. "With continuous support, Baidu will empower it with artificial intelligence technologies in the future."

According to the company, iQiyi had 481 million monthly active end users as of December 2016, with an above-average growth rate.

The funding comes as video streaming has become hotly contested in China. The country's biggest internet companies including the trilogy known as BAT, namely Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, have either set up or backed major players.

 

BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US