ByteDance Acquires Platforms in Cinema Ticketing and Comics

Beijing-based internet technology firm and TikTok creator ByteDance has recently acquired cinema ticketing platform Leyinghui (Shanghai) Cultural Media Co., Ltd., and comic platform Yizhikan. The moves indicate that the layout of ByteDance’s business operations in the culture and entertainment sector is taking further shape.

Leyinghui is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sky City (Shanghai) Industrial Co., Ltd., a service provider of films, gifts, film entertainment marketing and other services for companies, as well as films and performances for individuals. The Leyinghui platform covers over 8,000 cinemas across China, supports online seat selection, and multiple modes of online payment and benefit redemptions.

After the acquisition, Leyinghui will retain its enterprise business and will build itself into an online ticketing service provider in joint efforts with Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese mainland counterpart for TikTok. Douyin’s internal mini program for booking film tickets now lists Leyinghui together with China’s two major online ticketing platforms – MaoYan and Tao Piao Piao – paving the way for ByteDance’s new business.

According to industry analysts, ByteDance’s acquisition of Leyinghui just before China’s annual Spring Festival is aimed at acquiring a piece of the online ticketing market, which tends to surge during the holiday period. Ultimately, however, ByteDance may be intending to build a business similar to Damai.cn.

Comic platform Yizhikan was previously a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing Manji Network Technology Co., Ltd., and is now wholly-owned by Beijing Dingzhen Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of ByteDance. Yizhikan is the first app in China with a large number of daily renewal comic works, including numerous legal copies of Chinese comics, Japanese comics and vertical/transverse comic.

These two recent significant acquisitions serve to fill up missing sections for ByteDance across the entertainment sector. The company’s operations in this realm now form an expansive system integrating games, music, film and television production, cartoons, video streaming, news and novels.

In the literature sector, ByteDance has reached a cooperation agreement with COL Digital Publishing whereby both parties will collaborate in audio content, the authorization of digital copyright and, most importantly, well-known IP works in the “Fanqie Novel” arena, so as to help ByteDance build the audio industry and develop host audio programs, FM and other services.

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In terms of comics, the book adapted from the original work “Fantasy: When I Was Invincible” published on Fanqie Novel not long ago ranks second in the national comic list published by Chinese video-streaming platform Bilibilli.

Regarding the firm’s games business, in May last year, ByteDance Game launched One Piece, which is the first mobile game ByteDance adapted from IP.