SHARES in Wasu Media Holding Co. rose by their 10 percent daily limit in Shenzhen yesterday after it said an investment firm controlled by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma would pay 6.54 billion yuan (US$1.05 billion) for a 20 percent stake.

    The investment in Wasu Media highlights Alibaba’s further expansion into the digital content market.

    Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, will provide a loan to the investment firm to help finance the purchase, according to a statement from Wasu Media yesterday.

    Wasu and Alibaba already collaborated last year by jointly launching a TV set-top box using an operating system developed by Alibaba. In a separate statement yesterday, Alibaba said it would team up with Wasu to develop digital content together.

    The move comes amidst a spate of investments by China’s Internet companies, including Alibaba rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., as they look to move away from PCs and onto people’s smartphone, tablet and Internet TV screens.

    “Alibaba and Wasu are optimistic about the future development of China’s media industry and will support each other in areas such as original content development, video communication, games, music, education, cloud computing, big data, as well as other areas of future exploration and investment in the media industry,” Alibaba said Tuesday.

    Wasu Media said it planned to sell the 20 percent stake in a private share placement to Hangzhou Yunxi Investment Partnership Enterprise, which is owned by Ma, Alibaba co-founder Simon Xie and Shi Yuzhu, billionaire founder of Giant Interactive Group. (SD-Agencies)