Alibaba Group launched a family entertainment cloud plan called Alifun. The Alifun service will enable family members to play online games, watch television programs and online videos as well as shop online at home via a cloud network that can work across any terminal device such as TV sets, mobile devices and set-top boxes. Alibaba did not specify when the service will be available for users.
Alibaba will cooperate with new media operator Hangzhou-based Wasu Media Holding Co and some game developers and operators, including Electronic Arts Inc from the US and France’s Gameloft SA, to co-develop its new cloud system, according to the report.
Analysts said that this service may face obstacles from the media regulator.
According to sina.com’s report, each Chinese family spends an average of 3.8 hours every day on entertainment, with 12.7 percent of them watching television at home, 40 percent playing with mobile phones by themselves, while 60 percent of them think they have no interactive communication with their family members. The “Alifun plan could change this situation and enable family members to play together,” Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba’s digital entertainment business unit, was quoted by the report as saying.
Alibaba declined to comment on its new plan, as the company “doesn’t want to be put under the national spotlight right after the State media supervising body has started strictly monitoring programs provided by online video providers,” an Alibaba PR staff member told the Global Times Wednesday.
Source: Mobile.globaltimes
