Baidu unveils autonomous bus in Beijing on Wednesday. Photo: Courtesy of Baidu
Chinese tech giant Baidu announced on Tuesday that it had begun final stage negotiations with Joyy, a livestreaming giant, moving closer to the completion of the acquisition of Joyy's domestic livestreaming businesses.
Baidu will acquire Joyy's domestic livestreaming platforms - with a total value of approximately $3.6 billion - including YY mobile app, YY.com and YY PC.
Notably, Joyy will not sell its overseas businesses. Joyy on Tuesday denied rumors that another Chinese tech giant Bytedance would acquire its overseas businesses, saying that the company doesn't plan to sell its overseas assets.
Analysts said the acquisition will aid the two sides in exchanging technology, traffic and users, because while Baidu has a total of 1 billion monthly active users, its livestreaming businesses are less famous compared with Joyy's, a company that made smart moves early on with its gaming chat platform, YY Voice.
"The transaction will give YY live access to Baidu's huge traffic pool, accelerate business growth, and release greater value in a larger ecosystem," said Li Xueling, Joyy's chairman.
Shen Dou, executive vice president of Baidu, has previously explained the company's strategy to converge different social media platforms such as Baidu App, Baidu Tieba, Baijiahao, and iQiyi. He has also said that content creators will be able to share their work on Baidu's multiple-platforms at once.
Baidu's convergence with Joyy will diversify Baidu's revenues, particularly increasing the company's non-advertisement revenues, said analysts.
Baidu's advertisement sector has been a major source of revenue for the tech giant. Its third quarter financial results revealed on Monday showed Baidu's total revenues came to 28.2 billion yuan ($4.29 billion), including about 18.4 billion yuan in the advertisement sector.
In financial sector, the impending acquisition inspired Nasdaq stock market. On Tuesday, shares of Baidu gained 1.9 percent to $147.84 per share, with those of Joyy up 1.55 percent to $95.58 per share.
Global Times
