Internet

Internet video in China: who are the players?

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, November 20, 2006 8:12 PM

This list is now being updated here: Updated China video website list.

Danwei is trying to put together a list of all the video sharing websites in China, which have not decreased in number since Google bought Youtube for 1.6 billion dollars.

Below is a list of Chinese video websites, with brief annotations. Please correct any errors or omissions in the comments if you are interested in this subject.

This list is being updated as new information comes to us.

Video hosting and sharing websites

Tudou
Apparently China's first video sharing site, Tudou already has enough funding to weather the coming storms.

Rox
Also well-funded, Rox has been doing online video and Internet TV technology for quite some time.

6 Rooms
Very similar in layout and functions to Youtube, loads fast in Beijing.

Pomoho
If you listen to hip hop and read literary theory, you may find the name amusing.

56.com
A Danwei TV episode of Sexy Beijing is on this website, in two different uploads, one from Danwei, one from someone else (1, 2). Adding viewing stats for both uploads, 56.com says that the episode has been viewed nearly four hundred thousand times. But that's all we know about the site.

Yoqoo
Not You Tube but Yo Qoo.

OmyTVs
With its name referencing Korean citizen journalism website OhmyNews (English site here), and copy on the website that encourages users to go out and act like journalists and editors, this website is is bound to be interesting if it can keep going.

Wangyou
Has the feel of a Chinese BBS or Internet forum, which might make it a winner in this market.

Mofile
Also very Youtube, but they are producing their own TV style programs (here is an interview with "Yangzhou's bus beauty").

Qing Yule
Requires software download to view videos; this site looks like a Chinese BBS.

Mop.com
Billing itself as China's "first entertainment interactive portal". It has active an BBS section, and offers video and photo uploads as well as news and other traditional portal functions.

Uume.com
Umee hosts videos and also allows users to search other video websites and allows users to watch those videos on the UUme page.
From Kaiser: "UUme, by the way, is owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, which also owns Mopcom. Oak's capo di tutti capi, Joseph Chen, is said to have gutted the size of the team working on UUme after learning that there are some 400 video sharing sites in China."
Uume.com has a similar URL but appears to be unconnected with Uume, and does not seem to function.

Yijian
From Kaiser: "It has some pretty strong backers and a founder with a good pedigree (Baidu, Tengxun, Xunlei)."

Mojiti has launched Chinese and English versions of its site which does not host video, but allows users to make collections of videos on other video sites, and to search other user collections and video sites.

After seeing this post, Mojiti founder Eric Feng wrote to Danwei and explained: "Our mission at Mojiti is to help users tell their own stories with any online video. We're not a video search engine - instead, we want to help users personalize video to create a more engaging viewing experience."

Biku
Another Youtube-like site with added functions: Biku offers video file downloads for MP3 players and mobile phones, although we could not get this function to work after a brief trial.

OuOu
A video sharing website with a BBS feel, OuOu has a large section of Flash animations.

5 Show
Lots of webcam videos of dancing, lip synching girls. The website has links to different servers for different ADSL networks to offer faster loading times.

Mantou TV
The name is a reference to the Steamed Bun spoof of Chen Kaige's movie that made Hu Ge and the word e gao (恶搞 - spoofing) popular in China. The website's tagline is "The first choice for short original videos".

Mysee
Video sharing website that only works on Internet Explorer, and requires a software download.

Vvlogger.com
Supposedly a video sharing site, this would not load at all (Nov 22), but is apparently the same thing as
Maidee which was working.

Video search

Mojiti and Uume.com let users search other video websites for content. Neither of them is as slick and easy to use as the new U.S. based site Blinkx.

Internet TV websites

UiTV.com
Offers movies and TV shows on a pay per download basis.

UUsee
It seems to be free, but requires software download. The site also offers Mp4s for download, as well as mobile phones formats.

v.china.com
China.com's new video play; professionally produced and user generated content.

In other non broadcast video news:

Forbes has published an AFP report titled China IPTV movie deal signals growing viability of download model - Macquarie. Excerpt:

An IPTV movie licensing deal between major studios and Shanghai Media Group unit Best TV marks a shift to a download model, with the economics and encryption protections of this distribution channel apparently becoming more acceptable to Hollywood, a Macquarie Research Equities analyst said.
Best TV signed deals with six global media groups involving on-demand access to their movies, the official Shanghai Securities News reported today.

The agreement will give Best TV subscribers in China access to the movie databases of the Warner, Sony/Columbia, Fox, Disney/Buena Vista, Paramount and Universal studios, to be available by the first quarter of 2007 at the latest, the report said.

And then there's this, from Interfax: China Mobile to focus on trans-media platform.

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There are currently 12 Comments for Internet video in China: who are the players?.

Comments on Internet video in China: who are the players?

There's also Yijian (www.yijian.com), which has some pretty strong backers and a founder with a good pedigree (Baidu, Tengxun, Xunlei). UUme, by the way, is owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, which also owns Mop. Oak's capo di tutti capi, Joseph Chen, is said to have gutted the size of the team working on UUme after learning that there are some 400 video sharing sites in China.

Posted by: Kaiser | November 21, 2006 12:29 AM

There's a newbie called Mojiti.com on the scene too. Mofile seems to draw the most traffic and they have claimed to me to be "10 times bigger". Its audience is certainly different to Tudou, which has greater youth appeal. Tudou tells me they're the biggest, etc, etc.

Posted by: michael d. | November 21, 2006 12:04 PM

Jeremy, the URL for UUme should be www.uume.com, not uumee.com (that's why there doesn't seem to be a lot going on there, as you said). UUme.com actually streams pretty darned fast and there's a lot of pretty risque stuff going on in some of these videos. (Pass me a Kleenex, would you?)

Posted by: Kaiser | November 21, 2006 3:49 PM

also vVlogger and mysee

Posted by: TVnomics | November 22, 2006 1:40 AM

Thanks for the posting on Mojiti.com. My name is Eric Feng and I'm the founder of the company. I just wanted to make one quick clarification: we're actually NOT a video sharing site but rather a new Internet service that allows users to easily annotate scenes and highlights objects in video. Our mission is to help people tell tell their own stories with any video, which you can do using our video annotation features. To see us in action, check out this brief introductory video at http://mojiti.com/kan/941/1204 (Chinese version is at http://mojiti.com/kan/941/1259). Thanks again for the mention and I hope you'll all check out the site.

Posted by: eric | November 22, 2006 11:58 AM

Do any of these sites have uploading/editing/file management instructions in English? YouTube loads awfully slow here in Xinjiang, and I'd like to put my Uyghur music videos on a Chinese site for local viewers.

Posted by: michael | November 22, 2006 6:05 PM

Vvlogger.com == Maidee

Posted by: Luyi Chen | November 24, 2006 12:56 AM

Should also check out pplive.com

Posted by: Apong | November 27, 2006 1:45 PM

Some insight into the background of Tudou's success can be found on http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/success-stories/tai_chi_communication/

Posted by: M. de B. | April 13, 2007 7:27 PM

here's another one in copycat mode: www.lvyou.tv
no english instructions

Posted by: chgmclean | May 1, 2007 1:46 PM

Is there in China anything like www.revver.com?
This is a website in which they share (50/50) commercials revenue in video with videomakers and sharers.
I ask you this question because I'd like to realize chine subtitles for my first web-serial ("Mad About Soccer").
Thank you for reply!

pierpaolo

Posted by: Pierpaolo | September 6, 2007 9:51 PM

dotSUB's not in China, but it's still pretty handy if you were to approach YeeYan or others.

Posted by: feng37 | September 7, 2007 11:26 AM