While going through my RSS feeds from the past days I noticed that Tudou.com was again included in the 2009 version of the Silicon Alley Insider top 60. This is a list of the 60 most valuable private Internet start-ups. Last year Tudou landed at place 22 with a USD 300 million valuation, this year we were at place 27 but at a higher valuation of USD 500 million. The analysis that SAI provided:
Tudou is largely seen as the YouTube of China, which represents a large growth opportunity as more and more Chinese aggressively consume online video. A year ago the site had 60 million monthly unique visitors, which has likely grown closer to 90 million. Though YouTube is clearly a threat, the Chinese are well-known for strongly favoring their own Web sites and so far this has proven true with Tudou, which has a greater market share in China than YouTube.
Revenue figures are hard to come by, but the company is likely losing a lot of money due to high bandwidth and licensing costs. Online video aggregators have come under scrutiny recently due to questions about the viability of their business models, but we still believe the opportunity is still large in the space and there is value in the leaders while the industry figures out how to turn viewers into profits.
Last year we gave the company a conservative $300 million valuation. This year we get a little more aggressive given the company’s growth the past year, resulting in a $500 million valuation.
Of course the list is quite arbitrary (where is Spil Games for example? Much smaller competitor Miniclip is in there at place 38) and the makers also acknowledge that, but it’s still nice to be included once again in such a ranking.
Note: I will not be able to comment on the valuation or on any of the other figures in the article, nor on the position of our competitors.
Congrats on this, M! Like a proud corporate father, you must be touched and innerly satisfied to see Tudou blossoming and growing. I share your joy vicariously.
–ADM
"Tudou, which has a greater market share in China than YouTube."
I would hope so, yeah, otherwise you have a serious problem on your hands! We can see that these people are keeping abreast of the latest news….! 🙂
First of all, congratulations..
By the way, isn't youtube still blocked in China?
@anonymouse & @dincer YouTube is still blocked in China, so getting a bigger market share than them is not so difficult. But also when YouTube was still going strong here it never had more than 2-3% market share (with Tudou >40% market share)
Hello Marc,
My sincere congrats for the achievements made at both Tudou and Spilgames. This is only the beginning. We once met at Spil's office in Hsum (We showed you a pinball game which unfortunately did not make it because of lack of the right techniques at that time)and i can only have respect for you/ your team's work. Keep up the good work!
Let me comment on this blocking thing. Not only YouTube is blocked in China. Also Vimeo (BTW in my opinion superior to all other video sharing websites thanks to both of quality of sound and video, second of content posted there). Also Facebook. Even something as innocent as Picasa is over board too. And now, just after i came back from Europe which was celebrating 20th anniv of Berlin Wall's fall, when i wanted to use my Opera Mini browser (which worked like a VPN in a way), i was welcomed by a note, "for improved browsing experience, download China version.." (which, of course, is sanitized of access to all above mentioned websites.) Not some "Server not found" or "Timed out", but "improved browsing", and this humiliation even comes from US (!!!) company's server – man, that REALLY hurts. So why did we tear the wall down for? Is it really only matter of time before for sake of stock value, all companies will hand over sensitive data to chinese govt and just watch the other direction when a few ppl will get shot?
When is this blocking madness going to stop? I bet two things: first, not very soon, as some of these blocks are also motivated economically (read "chinese grown companies hv better guanxi in Beijing than their foreign competitors and actually enjoy being protected by GFW") – who thinks this is too stretched just read Marc's sentence about PLA in the Trailwalker, "…Chinese will do ANYTHING to win…and foreign competitors often underestimate this."
Second, this generation of politicians will not be the one who will phase out GFW.
Allow me one speculation here: the reason for fortifying of GFW was neither Facebook profiles of those guys from west, or some videos from L-city. (U know what i am talking about.) I think the reason was rise of Obama. Present govt sure does not want any contender having zillions of fans, all safely hidden at servers – and THIS is the most important i guess – from which they cannot get a password. No. And as the first line of Art of War, the most important book about Chinese metality and approach to the world reads, "War is the most important thing for the survival or defeat of a state. It must never be overlooked." If I were in their boots, I would probably dance the same way… /Marc, with a stake as huge in China as yours i will fully understand if u do not approve this comment, no hard feeling on my side…/