Chinese web giant Alibaba launches TBO video streaming service

HE’S the billionaire chief of Chinese web giant Alibaba and he’s on a mission to redefine home entertainment with a new streaming service. Be afraid, Netflix.

CHINESE web giant Alibaba is threatening to undercut Netflix with the launch of its own video streaming service.

Tmall Box Office, or TBO, will be released in China and will feature both licensed content and original video.

Netflix has reportedly been planning expansion into China so Alibaba’s latest move could prove to be a hurdle, The Huffington Post reports.

World beater ... Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma speaks at a luncheon of the Economic Club of New York.

The news comes days after Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma visited the US to woo small domestic businesses to use Alibaba to break into the Chinese market.

Alibaba is setting its sights high. “Our goal is to become like HBO in the United States, to become like Netflix in the United States,” Patrick Liu, Alibaba’s president of digital entertainment, told reporters last week.

Under threat ... Netflix has been planning a major expansion into China.

The service will cater to the entertainment needs of 600 million families and will be made available through Alibaba’s set-top box and smart televisions carrying its operating system, Liu Chunning, president of Alibaba’s digital entertainment business, told the International Business Times.

Alibaba would charge fees on customers for about 90 per cent of TBO’s content, with the remaining 10 per cent available for free streaming.

Netflix is available in many countries outside of US but has struggled to license content in foreign territories, and subscriber numbers are relatively small.