Sony takes $400 million stake in Chinese streaming site Bilibili

Chinese video streaming platform Bilibili received a $400 million equity investment from Sony as the two entertainment companies seek to further collaborate in anime and video games, Bilibili said on Thursday, reported Caixin.

Sony, through its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Corp. America, will subscribe for 17,310,696 newly issued Class Z ordinary shares of Bilibili at $23.1071 a share, Bilibili said.

Upon closing, Sony will beneficially own about 4.98% of Bilibili’s total issued shares, with a lock-up period of six months. Sony’s investment will “further align our goals to bring best-in-class content offerings and services to our users as we increase our domestic stronghold in animation and mobile gaming,” said Bilibili Chief Executive Chen Rui.

Established in 2009, Bilibili is backed by Tencent and Alibaba. The platform is particularly popular among China’s post-millennial Generation Z for its anime, comics and games, attracting more than 130 million monthly active users.