Youku Transcends YouTube as China Becomes Center of Internet

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-17/youku-transcends-youtube-as-china-becomes-center-of-internet.html

by petethomas • 16 years ago

26 26 16 years ago

Youku seems to be severely throttled in the West. Anytime I've tried to use it, I've given up in frustration at the buffering times.

maxklein2• 16 years ago

That's official strategy to save traffic, I read somewhere once.

krav• 16 years ago

It is not the internet unless it's open. More accurate, imho, to call it Chinanet.

kiba2• 16 years ago

How are we supposed to enjoy Chinese language video? The firewall of china is just one barrier. The more significant barrier is how to translate it.

The language barrier is preventing synergy between Chinese and Western cultures.

bobds• 16 years ago

We've solved this problem, at least if you don't mind reading. They are called subtitles.

Groxx• 16 years ago

One barrier was created with the express intent of being a barrier.

The other is a tool for improving communication between people that developed separately from other similar tools, and is pretty much equivalent to a different API.

I don't think they're comparable. Unless China decides to ban export of all chinese-language media, and import of all non-chinese media.

benhedrington• 16 years ago

Anyone here doing startups in China? From inside or outside the country?

schumihan• 16 years ago

I'm one of them. The weakness of yuku is most of the videos are uploaded by the website itself, not the user generated content. The reasons behind it is quite complicated...

iworkforthem2• 16 years ago

China is a complicated place to be in. Think of it this way, like USA, its people and government value patriotism. But in China the government prefer(enforce) patriotism without the (any)freedom of speech.

garply• 16 years ago

I run a business in China. To run a business targeting Chinese consumers, you need to be based inside China.

I often see people ask American-based startups: "Why don't you offer Chinese support and try to grab the Chinese market?" It's really not that simple. Even for an existing startup, successfully entering the Chinese market basically requires you to run a totally new business. If you don't treat the Chinese branch like its own indigenous company, you won't get anywhere. I think Google is an excellent example of a company that failed, or refused, to understand this.

emeltzer2• 16 years ago

I wouldn't write off google china quite yet? They still have a huge office here churning out tons of code, making interesting things, kicking ass with android stuff..

olalonde• 16 years ago

Yep (although I'm back in Canada for a while now). maxklein is also doing his startup in China.

IMO, Youku's most obvious competitive advantage is that they undergo almost no pressure from copyright holders. There are tons of full movies available on Youku and I highly doubt they have licensing partnership like Hulu does.

maxklein2• 16 years ago

Yes, I am. Was inside till a few days ago, but now outside, but with an established office in china.

jimbokun• 16 years ago

"Sales from online advertising reached 20.7 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) last year, according to data from Beijing-based iResearch Inc. By comparison, ZenithOptimedia estimates U.S. Internet advertisements in 2009 were valued at $54.2 billion."

Seems like burying the lead to me. I don't think you can say Chinese web sites are surpassing U.S. ones as a business until the revenues are comparable. Otherwise, it's more like bit torrent or the Pirate Bay. They may be surpassing YouTube and Hulu in downloads, but that doesn't mean there is a superior business model behind it.

cma• 16 years ago

now adjust for purchasing power parity

megablast• 16 years ago

Also, the ebay alternative does not charge any fees, it only gets it money from ads. They do this, according to the article, because Chinese prefer it that way. If it is true for other services, then China is more ad driven than other countries, so it should be even higher than normal.

emeltzer2• 16 years ago

@benhedrington doing something involving libraries in beijing. we're in stealth mode ish.

youku and tudou and all the other youtube-likes are essentially unusable in the US. partially intentional to avoid copyright trouble for the companies involved, however they have set up servers abroad to cater to countries with large overseas-chinese populations.

c1sc02• 16 years ago

My impression is that this is a recent thing. I remember about one year ago youku & tudou were very 'copyright-friendly'. PPStream is still quite good, but it uses a windows-only client.

siculars• 16 years ago

Take any news China related (like Russia related) with a very large grain of salt.

“The Internet’s center of gravity is shifting toward China, said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China in Beijing, a technology consultant.”

This is one of the more ridiculous things I've read recently. China is not the center of the internet. And the only technology they have is either bought or stolen.

iworkforthem2• 16 years ago

I think the article starts off badly, its YouTube vs Hulu comparison generates quite a bit of negative sentiments.

Every country has its own policies, it is quite tough for outsiders to intervene or change things around. Think Cambodia, Vietnam. In Chin'a case, it's the government's case to require Web content to be censored. That's how it is, think of it as cultural difference or the rules of the game if you want to play.

The opportunities to grow in developing countries are great, it is just the process to come in, understand how the local does things and how can we adapt our policies to make it work that matters. A few other countries that offer similar growth opportunities less the restrictions are Malaysia and Indonesia. (just look at the Jakarta Composite and KLSE Composite index)

metamemetics• 16 years ago

>For Youku’s Koo, Chinese Internet companies are developing superior business models

>YouTube, owned by Google, is inaccessible in China.

Kind of hard to determine one business model is superior when they aren't even allowed to compete.

chii• 16 years ago

oh its superior alright - they managed to out compete google even before google entered to compete :)

beza1e1• 16 years ago

I think it does not make sense to compare USA with China. It rather see english vs chinese, because the language barrier is bigger than the national barrier for a service like Youtube. The english speaking world is much bigger than the USA alone.

veidr• 16 years ago

There is no Internet in China. What they have is something else, and something fundamentally different.

c1sc02• 16 years ago

The most interesting consequence of operating in china is simply the massive scaling ability required of even the simplest of websites. I expect some interesting technologies to come out of china in the next few years because of this.

Youku Transcends YouTube as China Becomes Center of Internet

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