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The son of China’s richest man is launching a live streaming site that could soon rival Amazon-owned service Twitch.
Panda TV is being backed by Wang Sicong, local online celebrity and son of Wang Jianlin, who is estimated to be worth $26.5 billion (Forbes, via VentureBeat).
Sicong will serve as CEO for Panda TV, which is yet to have a launch date confirmed but was registered as a business in July of this year.
But the live streaming service won’t be Sicong’s first foray into the games industry – in 2011 he purchased the professional eSports team Invictus Gaming (then known as Catastrophic Cruel Memory) for $6 million in an effort to boost the sector’s presence in China.
As well as the obvious financial assistance, Sicong’s family connections could serve Panda TV very well; his father is the chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, which owns both AMC Entertainment and Wanda Cinemas – making it the world’s biggest cinema chain.
Twitch itself has attempted to grow its name in China, investing in its Taiwanese output by hiring local Street Fighter star Bruce ‘GamerBee’ Hsiang.
However, with YouTube Gaming beginning to jostle with Twitch for the live streaming crown on Western shores, it remains to be seen how the service will fare in the months to come.
