The Tudou going public drama is all coming over again. After countless rumors of being rejected by investment banks or being flattered with Baidu acquisition offer or resuming IPO process, Wang Wei, founder and CEO of the battered online video service, comes up with an new package concept of marketing Tudou in an aim to touting the company to the Wall Street again. According to him, Tudou is like the Chinese “Youtube+Hulu+HBO”, withe each one of them representing one of the core businesses of Tudou, including UGC contents, copyrighted quality contents and in-house productions.
Still remembered that Renren compared itself to the Chinese “Facebook+Groupon+Zynga”, which stands for the three fundamental businesses of Renren?
Actually, in-house production is just a workaround due to the skyrocketing costs of buying copyrighted contents that we mentioned before. And even some online video practitioners didn’t all agree with that. Luo Chunjiang, CEO of online video initiative Funshion, said that “Internet has never been a powerhouse for contents. ” And one of his arguments is: “If it’s that easy to make TV programs, what are the TV productions for?”
However, Qiyi (like Hulu) apparently didn’t think so. Some of the Beijing-based company’s in-house productions has been on air through cooperation with local TV stations including Hunan TV and Zhejiang TV.
And according to people familiar with the matter, Tudou’s IPO wins full subscription of its 6 million ADS priced between US$ 28 and 30.