Alibaba Pictures: An Illustration of Changing Business Cultures and Film Finance

Abstract

This chapter stands as a transition between the Chinese political-economic and media macro-contexts and the micro-contexts of film production and creative talents. Through the lens of Alibaba Pictures and following Peterson's framework, I analyse the organisational process and the change in business cultures within the Chinese corporate media world. I argue that this change directly affects the development and programming of content. In addition, Alibaba's (and Tencent's) recent embrace of blockchain and smart contract technologies may further transform the creative industries (Zen 2018; Zhao 2018).