Alibaba Will Use Blockchain To Boost Film Industry

Li Jie, senior VP of Alibaba's subsidiary Alibaba Pictures stated that he is confident that blockchain could transform the world of motion pictures. 

Blockchain could be pivotal in the film industry, according to Alibaba Pictures officials. The implementation of blockchain could also boost the entire Chinese movie-making sector, as the technology could help film producers and movie theaters achieve a faster and transparent rights settlement.

For instance, Alibaba Pictures disclosed a Memorandum of Understanding with DTV rights management operator SingularDTV to distribute Alibaba's "Striding into the Wind" motion picture.

The news comes amid shrinking revenue of Chinese films` box office. Despite the shrinkage, the Chinese market looks better than the box offices in other parts of the world. "People have changed their viewing habits. It has become much harder to regain viewers' attention," Li noted.

Li also emphasized when Chinese watch movies - mostly during the Spring festival, National Day, and summer vacation holidays. According to his estimations, over 85% of Chinese buy tickets online, while in the United States, the rate is much lower - around 40%. Li thinks blockchain technology could become a pivotal point in the way people interact with the film industry, especially when so many Chinese are using online payment methods to buy goods and services.

During the Chinese Film Investment and Development in the New Era forum, held in Xiamen, the VP of China Film Association La Peikang stated that the Chinese film market normalized after the 2016 film frenzy. The box office market also shows a substantial growth with a 30% annual growth rate over the past 15 years.

"We enter a period where the boom no longer exists, and the success of a film would much depend on the film's quality, rather than cast and budgets.", La added.