- Youku
Youku (
Simplified Chinese : 优酷pinyin "yóukù", literally means "excellent and cool") is a video sharing site based inPeople's Republic of China .Infobox Website
name = Youku
caption =
url = [http://www.youku.com/ Youku.com]
commercial = yes
type =Video sharing
language = Chinese
registration = optional (required to upload videos)
owner = Victor Koo
author = Victor Koo
launch date = 2006
current status = Active
revenue =
slogan = The World is Watching
alexa = 56History
Youku was created by Victor Koo, the former
President ofSohu , with its beta was launched in June 2006 and formally launched in December 2006. In 2007, the company received $25 million funding from venture capitalists. [http://mashable.com/2007/11/21/youku-funded/] Youku.com ranked #1 in Chinese video sharing sector by China Internet Society, iResearch and Baidu User Index. In 2008, Youku has teamed up withMyspace in China. [http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/03/14/myspace-china-partners-with-video-site-youku]Features
Youku permits users to upload videos regardless of their length. Youku has partnered with a number of TV stations, film and TV production companies in China that regularly uploaded media content on the site. It also allows user-generated video uploads.According to a
Compete.com survey, the site attracts at least 6.5 million visitors annually as of this year. [ [http://siteanalytics.compete.com/youku.com?metric=uv 6.5 million visitors] ]Copyright infringement
Due to lax copyright enforcement in China, unlicensed, unauthorized copyrighted material such as full length movies, music videos, even copies of user-generated video from other video sharing websites are abundant.
Recently, however, a number of copyrighted materials have been blocked in certain regions of the world.
Further reading
* [http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=30640476 Youku Information] at
Business Week Competitors
*
Tudou
*56.com References
External links
* [http://www.youku.com Official site]
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