Short videos are becoming a pillar of Chinese social media, especially on Weibo.
Yixia Tech, parent of popular video streaming and sharing apps such as Miaopai, Xiaokaxiu, and Yizhibo, recently raised 500 million USD investment in a Series E led by Weibo. Following a 200 million USD Series D last year, this values the company at between 3 and 5 billion USD.
Miaopai is a a Vine-like service where users shoot, edit, and share 10-second video, launched in 2013; Xiaokaxiu is a video-dubbing app; and Yizhibo is a live streaming service inside Weibo.
While Twitter may be bearish on their own short video service, Vine, other platforms are becoming more and more popular not only in China. Instagram has just announced that it is adding a live-streaming video function while its parent company, Facebook, has already put lots of effort on developing their live-streaming business.
Weibo led this round with 120 million USD. This put the total amount invested by Weibo alone at 190 million USD. That, plus a 100 million USD fund for Miaopai video makers, shows that relationship between the two companies is deepening.
Indeed, Weibo is gearing up to become the most prominent “social media platform” in China. According to their latest financial reports, the company has been growing rapidly with users increasing 30 percent from last year.
Over the past year, Weibo has made a series of strategic adjustments that have contributed to their growth. At the Wuzhen Internet Internantional Conference last week, Cao Guowei, CEO of Weibo, mentioned that second-quarter growth can be attributed to short video sharing and real-time content consumption, enhancing user experience.