Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has launched an investment platform Yulebao, in which an individual could invest in movies and/or games starting from 100 yuan ($16). The platform has attracted an increasing number of investors, says an article in Guangming Daily. Excerpts:

Before Yulebao entered the market, Internet financial products issued by IT companies such as Alibaba were the greatest attractions in the financial industry. The People's Bank of China had said it would not impose any restrictions on Yu'ebao - although it put forward a series of supervision measures to guard against financial risks - because the reputation of traditional banks had taken a beating and profits had been split. This caused the emerging online finance industry to confront severe challenges.

Judging from the current situation, Yulebao is not likely to face obstacles similar to that confronted by Yu'ebao. At present, national policies are quite supportive of the cooperation between capital and cultural products. Since there exists no big vested interest group in films and the game industry in the finance market, Yulebao will not face challenges from competitors while trying to gain a share in the industry. Also, Yulebao has fixed a purchase limit and offered a platform for small investment for the people.

Despite all this, the role Yulebao plays in the cultural industry still needs time to be determined. China's seemingly prosperous film industry has not produced masterpieces despite the heavy investment. The films Yulebao plans to invest in seem to lack strong humanistic spirit; some have even promoted wrong values.

Culture has its own attributes different from that of capital, and such attributes cannot be measured with money. The entry of capital in the cultural field could hurt these attributes. Under such conditions, a trend of vulgarity has emerged in China's film market.

This, in more ways than one, will be an important criterion to decide the role Yulebao plays in the future cultural market. Would its appearance accelerate the current trend or divert it in the right direction? The answer depends on time.

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