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Tudou.com
Tudou ("potato") is China's first video-sharing service. But competition is growing fierce. |
The world is still flabbergasted by the instant success of video-sharing company
YouTube. Meanwhile in China, this field is growing not only in terms of the sheer number of online videos, but also in the number of companies trying to establish a business here.
Sixteen months ago, Tudou (Chinese for "potato") was the first Chinese video-sharing service -- and an instant success. In November 2006, according to founder Marc van der Chijs, Tudou drew an average 1.2 million visitors per day, watching between three and four million videos. Each day 6,000 new videos are uploaded to the service.
Leading marketing blog Danwei counted at least 20 competitors, although China Web2.0 Review claims there are already 150.
So far, none of these services has found a way to make money. However, venture capital has been flooding into this industry. There are many differences compared to the first Internet bubble that shook the industry in 2000, one year after the U.S. bubble burst. But when VC money chases eyeballs instead of revenue, problems are not far away.
