(Yicai Global) Jan. 18 -- Yicai Global, the English-language news arm of China's largest financial media company, Yicai Media Group, is in negotiations for Pre-A and A-round funding deals with the firm valued at over CNY500 million (USD77 million), People.com, the official website of People's Daily cited a source close to the company as saying.

The Shanghai-based company has attracted several institutional investors since its inception two years ago, the report said. Yicai Media CEO Zhou Jiangong once said, he positions Yicai Global as an indispensable resource for investors, rather than a news agency. 

Yicai Global is a platform that conveys China's voice in a more thorough and accurate way to people outside the country, once said Yang Yanqing, deputy editor-in-chief at China Business News (CBN), Yicai Media's Chinese-language news arm.

Unlike traditional English media projects in China, Yicai Global's strategy has been to establish itself as a top-tier supplier for major western financial media outlets such as Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Nikkei and News Republic, as opposed to developing its own platform.

The company's growing footprint on western social media platforms – with more than one million Twitter followers, some 800,000 Facebook followers and successful accounts on Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn -- has attracted millions of foreign readers to its English language content, and online traffic has continued to rise over the years.

The Chinese government is eager to increase its influence and acquire a stronger presence on the international stage. However, other media organizations in the country, state-run newspapers and public media outlets alike, have thus far failed to make inroads in Chinese content dissemination on a global level. Yicai Global is probably the only Chinese English financial media service that has achieved serious results in this regard.