On Thursday, Sony stated that it is investing US$400 million to secure a 4.98% stake in the Chinese giant of entertainment, Bilibili. Sony and Bilibili have agreed to pursue the field of entertainment in China, including mobile games apps, and animation.
Bilibili started as an animation site ten years ago, but it has now expanded, and it offers other categories such as user-generated music videos, e-sports, games, and documentaries. The company that boasts of 130,000,000+ users has attracted several major investors such as Tencent and Alibaba over the years.
This announcement pushed the share up of Bilibili by 7.6% in pre-market trading. Sony made this investment via its wholly-owned corporation Sony Corporation of America.
Sony said that the company is confident China is a key strategic region for the entertainment business. The majority of Bilibili users (80%) were born between 1990 and 2009, and it says that it targets China’s Gen-Z.
