Sony invests $400m in Chinese streamer Bilibili

Sony is ploughing $400m into streaming and entertainment service Bilibili, in a deal that will value the Chinese company at more than $8bn.

The investment will hand Sony a 5% stake in Bilibili and also includes an agreement that the two companies will work together on entertainment collaborations in China.

Bilibili operates across entertainment sectors, with a raft of programming on offer that includes user generated short form content and longer form docuemntaries and series. It also offers games and anime content.

Fellow Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba also hold stakes in Bilibili, with 13% and 7% stakes respectively.

Rui Chen, chairman and CEO of Bilibili, said: “The strategic investment and business cooperation further align our goals to bring best-in-class content offerings and services to our users, as we increase our domestic stronghold in animation and mobile games.”

“We look forward to joining efforts on a broader scale to fulfill the tremendous and growing entertainment needs in China,” he added.

Bilibili claims to have 130 million average monthly active users and almost 38 million daily average users, both up around 40% on this time last year.

The deal was struck through the Sony Corporation of America and will see the US-based division acquire 17 million shares in Bilibil, which is traded on the US Nasdaq.

Late last year Sony Pictures Television (SPT) moved into kids TV production for the first time after striking a $195m deal to buy Octonauts and Peter Rabbit prodco Silvergate Media.