ChinaVision Media Group, backed by Alibaba, has set up a film company in Hong Kong to help the Chinese e-commerce giant to gear up for its digital entertainment and video content strategy, news portal caixin.com reported Monday.

Unnamed sources close to the matter were quoted by the report as saying that Alibaba would seize a 60 percent stake in the new company, named Alibaba Pictures Group, after its contract with ChinaVision is finalized.

The e-commerce company refused to comment on this, while ChinaVision could not be reached by press time. The Integrated Companies Registry Information System, run by the Hong Kong government, disclosed that Alibaba Pictures Group was founded on April 3 without giving more details.

While its main business are popular online shopping platforms in China, Alibaba is stepping up efforts to tap other promising sectors recently, which some analysts said is a reflection of its easing e-commerce operation.

Alibaba announced in March it would acquire a 60 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed ChinaVision for HK$6.24 billion ($803.7 million), with the deal reportedly to close in June. More than a month later, the company said it would acquire a 16.5 percent stake in the country's leading online video provider Youku Tudou Inc.

The company also hired Liu Chunning, former general manager of Tencent's online video section, to be the president of its digital and entertainment division last year. Liu has already helped Alibaba launch a mobile gaming platform in early January.

"As the growth of the e-commerce giant's mobile shopping business is slowing down, Alibaba needs to find new profitable spaces. Online video, mobile games and online education are expected to be the core markets," said Lu Zhenwang, CEO of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting.

In March, Alibaba launched Yulebao, a crowdsourced film investment fund that allows customers to invest in movies, TV shows, and games, as another part of the move into the entertainment industry.

Driven by the popularity of smart devices on the mobile front, China's online video industry is booming fast, worth 3.68 billion yuan ($589.2 million) in the first quarter of 2014, a skyrocketing surge of 59.2 percent year-on-year, said a report by Beijing-based Internet consulting firm iResearch Consulting Group.

Xu Hao, an industry analyst with iResearch said that Alibaba could not only seek massive opportunities in online video sectors, but may also become a film producer and distributor in the future with the support of ChinaVision.

ChinaVision's business involves TV and film production, print media and mobile new media, according to its website.

Alibaba will offer a paid film channel on its influential e-commerce platforms by exploiting the advantages of ChinaVision, according to the sources.

The cooperation with Youku Tudou may likely provide Alibaba's online retailers another promotion platform, Xu told the Global Times. "But the integration is not easy and it is also hard to persuade people to go online shopping while watching online videos," he said.

Both Lu and Xu noted that Alibaba's purchases in other sectors would unlikely weaken its efforts in its core business.

"Tmall.com, Alibaba's business to consumer (B2C) online shopping platform, still needs lots of financial support from its parent company to maintain its leading position in the sector. Its logistics network and services still have much room to improve when compared with its major rival jd.com," said Lu.

He noted that tmall.com is confronted with an increasing threat from its competitors like jd.com which will likely become stronger after gaining fairly sustainable financial support via an IPO.

In a filing posted on the US Securities Exchange Commission in mid-April, jd.com is expected to raise $1.5 billion from the US market. Alibaba filed the prospectus to the US securities regulatory body in early May, proposing a $1 billion IPO.

According to iResearch, Tmall still led the B2C e-commerce market in the first quarter of this year by transaction volumes with 50.6 percent, and jd.com was second with 23.3 percent.