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China’s game streaming site Panda TV confirms it will end service amid cash crisis

  • Panda TV still ranked as China’s No. 3 game streaming network in terms of active users at the end last year
  • Platform was founded in 2015 by Wang Sicong, son of Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin

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Shanghai-based Panda TV was founded in 2015 by Wang Sicong, an entrepreneur and son of Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin. Photo: Handout
Zheping HuangandJane Zhang

China’s once high-flying game streaming platform Panda TV has announced it will end its service after the company failed to raise fresh funds to keep operations going in a cash-intensive business.

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Founded in 2015 by Wang Sicong, an entrepreneur and son of Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin, Shanghai-based Panda TV said in a posting on microblogging site Weibo on Friday that it has started a “wandering plan,” asking “engineers to gradually cut off the connection with the mother star,” an apparent reference to China’s recent blockbuster sci-fi movie Wandering Earth, which tells the story of Chinese people saving humanity by moving the planet to another solar system.

A picture attached to the Weibo statement shows the back of a waving panda, with a text bubble saying “Bye.”

The official announcement comes after earlier reports this week that Panda TV would file for bankruptcy and dismiss its 500-strong workforce.

Panda TV’s chief operating officer, Andy Zhang Juyuan, on Thursday sent a message to employees in a WeChat group, saying that the company had been forced to “end” after it failed to inject outside money into the business over the past two years.

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A former Panda TV employee, who declined to be identified after losing her job, confirmed Zhang’s message.

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