Douban, one of the most innovative and largest book, movie and music rating site in China, raised US$50m in Series C from Sequoia, Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Trustbridge Partners.
According to Yang Bo, the founder and CEO of Douban, the funding would be used to develop new products, to beef up teams and to enhance marketing and branding.
Founded in March 2005, Douban raised US$2m from Ceyuan Ventures in Series A in 2006 and US$ tens of millions from Ceyuan and Trustbridge in Series B in late 2009.
The site now claims over 53 million registered users.
Douban appeals to people who love books, movies and musics and care to write reviews for them. On top of these, Douban also offers social networking and other features including popular online groups (over 240,000), music streaming (douban.fm), daily deals aggregator, events discovering, RSS reading and newly-revamped online virtue city Alpha Town.
“Slow Company”
In internet era, every online companies are striving to be a fast company. However, unlike its fast-moving counterparts who are good at raising and bleeding money and are skilled in making swift but hasty decisions, Douban is considered to be a slow company with its own pace regarding releasing new products and features. The company has an intense craving for user experience and products crafting, and has its own interpretation of what experience is and should be.