Chinese gaming giant NetEase sells comics business to rival Bilibili, retains rights to Marvel series
- The sale of comics by NetEase contrasts with action of tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent, which are investing heavily to broaden their content offerings
China’s second-largest gaming company NetEase has signed a deal to sell its comics business to rival Bilibili, changing track from its previous efforts to build a footprint in the country’s booming online comics market.
Shanghai-based Bilibili, a popular anime-streaming site for Chinese millennials, announced the deal in a Wednesday statement saying that it was acquiring “major assets” from NetEase Comics including its mobile app, website, and copyrights for a large number of stories on these platforms.
A representative from NetEase said in the statement that it will work with Bilibili to create original comics content in the future. Neither company provided details about the specific comics involved or the size of the deal.
NetEase Comics, which was spun off from the Beijing-based parent’s online reading business in 2015, currently publishes over 2,000 comics series, including those from 600 Chinese and overseas artists who gave exclusive distribution rights to the platform. Its app has nearly 40 million registered users.
NetEase’s sale of its comics unit contrasts with the course taken by tech giants such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, which are investing heavily to broaden their content offerings. Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to pay for original content in the country’s fast-growing billion-dollar digital entertainment industry.
NetEase in May unveiled Marvel’s first Chinese superheroes in two sets of new comics published on its platform, a result of a partnership deal from 2017 between the two companies. NetEase also publishes various Marvel comics including Captain America and Iron Man in China.