(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- Ownership of Chinese video site operator Youku has passed from Alibaba Cultural Entertainment to one of its units.

Shanghai-based Quan Tudou Network Technology now owns all of Youku Information Technology Beijing, according to information updated today on business inquiry platform Tianyancha. Neither firm has announced a reason for the change over.

Youku was founded in February 2006 and Tudou in December 2004. In 2012, Youku and Tudou, which were rivals, merged into Youku Tudou Group in a 100 percent share swap. Later, in August 2015, Youku Tudou was renamed Heyi Group. Youku Information Technology Beijing is the institutional entity of Heyi Group.

Alibaba Group Holding and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by its founder Jack Ma, made a USD1.22 billion strategic investment in the video-sharing site in May 2014, with Alibaba holding a 16.5 percent stake. In November 2015, Alibaba offered to buy the rest for USD4.7 billion. In April 2016, Heyi announced plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange as it sealed the deal with Alibaba.

The acquisition helped to make Alibaba a technology company engaged in the three industry-leading businesses of e-commerce, videos and advertising.

Tudou transformed in 2017 into a short-video platform operated by Quan Tudou.

Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment division, which includes Youku and Tudou, earned CNY8.1 billion (USD1.3 billion) in the three months ended last Sept. 30, according to its quarterly earnings report.

Youku’s daily average subscriber base rose 14 percent from a year earlier, driven primarily by quality content and continued contribution from the 88VIP membership program, the report showed.

Editor: Peter Thomas