Chinese Internet firms are getting more creative at targeting customers with new products — they have rolled out various investment funds and even virtual credit cards which the government put a stop to — and now e-commerce giant Alibaba is letting users invest in TV and movie projects.
Alibaba announced today the launch of Yu Le Bao, which lets people invest as little as CNY100 ($16) to earn returns from popular TV and movie projects with expected annualized returns of seven percent. The first batch of projects is accepting pre-orders starting today — users can access the Yu Le Bao page via Alibaba’s mobile Taobao app and choose to put their money in one out of the four listed there. The total investment amount of the projects is CNY73 million ($11.8 million).
To entice users further, Alibaba’s Yu Le Bao service will also help secure opportunities to attend producer meetings, movie screenings, prop auctions, filming location visits, as well as meet-ups with superstars or getting celebrity autographs. Given how passionate some Chinese can be over their TV dramas, Alibaba’s latest product could spark a frenzy of starstruck investors.
Thumbnail image via Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
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