Goldman, Temasek investing $110m in Cloudary

Cloudary Corp - an online literature platform owned by interactive media giant Shanda Group - said on Tuesday that it raised about $110 million through private placements from Goldman Sachs Investments Holdings (Asia) Ltd and Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings.

The two sides did not reveal the specific stakes in the investment.

Funds will primarily be used to further boost Cloudary's incentive scheme for writers, secure commercially valuable literary content and develop mobile Internet products and applications, according to a statement issued by the company.

In addition, it said it will contemplate strategic investments and acquisitions, including vertical and horizontal expansion projects, across the entertainment content value chain.

Robert Chiu, Cloudary's chairman, said the company chose Goldman Sachs and Temasek because they know the company and share similar views regarding online literary platforms.

"Under our open-platform strategy, the curtain of additional strategic cooperation projects has just been raised," Chiu said at a news conference in Beijing. "In the near future, we're not excluding the possibility of more capital operations, focused on partnerships rather than money."

The introduction of outside investors has somewhat cheered up Cloudary's management and helped it to recover confidence. The company went through a bumpy road in recent years.

Cloudary's initial public offering plan, which was first announced in 2011, has been delayed because of internal turbulence and the lackluster economic environment.

In March, some founders of Qidian.com - an online literary platform owned by Cloudary - resigned and left to set up a new company.

The spin-off team received support from Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. The newly established website - Chuangshi.qq.com - was allowed to get access to Tencent's hundreds of millions of Chinese users.

In addition, targeting China's booming online readers, Baidu Inc also launched a literary website - Duoku.com.cn - in June.

Facing fiercer competition in the domestic market, Chiu said that Cloudary aims to secure its top position and will continue to lead the industry through innovative moves.

"The online literary sector is a tough, serious business. Core competitiveness is not based on public relation activities or on spats," Chiu said.

The company's experience will play a critical role, he added.

"We defined online literary platforms in China for about 10 years, and we'll continue to lead and define the industry," he added.

Hou Xiaoqiang, chief executive officer of Cloudary, said that the mobile Internet is the next major focus for the company.

"But in some sense, we're already a mobile Internet company," he said.