Alibaba will take a 30% stake in the Shanghai Media subsidiary, and the two plan to form both a financial data platform and an incubator.

E-commerce group Alibaba agreed today to invest CNY 1.2bn ($194m) in China Business News (CBN), a finance-focused subsidiary of China-based media conglomerate Shanghai Media Group, as part of a strategic agreement.

Alibaba will acquire a 30% stake through the deal, and intends to launch an incubator in partnership with China Business News that will fund media startups, two people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

The two companies plan to jointly work on data-based initiatives in…