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Fourth Quarter Earnings Announcement Expected: YOKU has confirmed that earnings will be announced Monday. The consensus earnings are $-0.04, with a high and low of $0.04 and $-0.13, respectively. The mean has trended downward from the last estimate of $0.01.
New SARFT Licenses Allow Youku to Enrich Service Offerings 8:00 am ET 02/24/2011 - PR Newswire
(Justabroker... Here's the news that goes with that byline)
BEIJING, Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading Internet television company, recently received several new licenses allowing it to expand its video services in live broadcasting, video search, and production and distribution of original content.
Youku received two online video licenses from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) in July 2008 for Internet audio/video programming transmission and production, which enabled the company to engage in professional content syndication, online video sharing, and original content production. With the latest licenses, Youku continues to lead the way in the Chinese online space with a wide array of service licenses.
"The granting of these permits enables us to diversify our business lines and enhance our flexibility to explore additional opportunities in the booming online media environment in China," said Victor Koo, Chairman and CEO of Youku.
Koo highlighted the importance of the new licenses for production and distribution of original content, which permit Youku to produce its own content and to distribute the content to other media or partners. While the majority of Youku's viewers watch long-form professionally produced content featured on the Company's website, original content plays a key role in defining Youku's brand image and personality, and helps Youku gain significant online and offline popularity.
Old Boys, the crowning final piece in the 11 Degrees New Media Film Project co-produced by Youku Originals, China Film Group and Chevrolet in 2010, was viewed more than 28 million times within three months of its release on Youku's website.
Another license authorizes Youku to provide "aggregation and indexing services for online video content," which enables the Company to continue developing Soku.com, the Company's Internet video search engine currently in beta-testing.
About Youku
Youku.com Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China. Youku's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of our Class A ordinary shares, are traded on NYSE under the symbol "YOKU".
Will blow out whatever they expected. He went from haveing positive earnings in 2014 and now see it in 2012, Thats 2 years off what he had thought, Something he had access to during the 2 goldman Technology and Internet Conference's changed his opinion.
At this price, It it surely a buying Opp. I dont care what this does short term, YOKU is gonna get legs and get them faster that what most thought.
YOKU: Goldman Says Buy, Profit In 2012. By Tiernan Ray
Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell this morning raised his rating from Neutral to Buy on shares of Youku.com (YOKU), the online service often referred to as the “YouTube of China.”
Mitchell set a $40 price target; the stock today is up $1.17, almost 4%, at $34.05.
Back in mid-January, with the stock trading at $37.48, Mitchell initiated coverage with the suggestion that Youku’s heavy losses — it had a negative 12% net income margin last year — could turn to a 20% or 25% operating profit margin come 2014 as costs fall and the company signs advertisers in China’s highly fragmented video market.
Today, Mitchell writes that “rapid growth in TV and movie viewing online will drive a dramatic expansion in Youku’s revenue and margins, and Youku will evolve into a clear category leader in China media.”
Mitchell thinks the company’s February 28th earnings report will show revenue growth, as advertisers take up the service, and it’s possible Youku could by 2014 catch up with Focus Media Holding Limited (FMCN), which currently has six times the revenue that Youku has, he argues. Focus Media, he writes, has shown that it’s not hard to tap into China’s multi-billion-dollar TV ad market, with revenue for the company rising from just 480 million renminbi in 2005 to 2.2 billion in 2010.
Moreover, Mitchell sees Youku as being similar to prior darlings such as Tencent Holdings and Baidu (BIDU): Both those companies got punished for earnings growth stumbles, but in retrospect, they really established lasting franchises, he writes.
Similarly, Youku is an investment in “business franchises experiencing favorable structural changes and ignoring near-term earnings trends.”
Mitchell sees Youku turning a profit sooner than he’d expected: he raised his revenue view for this year by 11% to 742 million renminbi, while cutting his EPS loss estimate by 19% to 20 cents per share on a non-GAAP basis, and he sees a profit of one penny per share in 2012, on revenue of 1.35 billion renminbi, which would be 14% higher than he’d previously expected.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell this morning raised his rating from Neutral to Buy on shares of Youku.com (YOKU), the online service often referred to as the “YouTube of China.”
Mitchell set a $40 price target; the stock today is up $1.17, almost 4%, at $34.05.
Back in mid-January, with the stock trading at $37.48, Mitchell initiated coverage with the suggestion that Youku’s heavy losses — it had a negative 12% net income margin last year — could turn to a 20% or 25% operating profit margin come 2014 as costs fall and the company signs advertisers in China’s highly fragmented video market.
Today, Mitchell writes that “rapid growth in TV and movie viewing online will drive a dramatic expansion in Youku’s revenue and margins, and Youku will evolve into a clear category leader in China media.”
Mitchell thinks the company’s February 28th earnings report will show revenue growth, as advertisers take up the service, and it’s possible Youku could by 2014 catch up with Focus Media Holding Limited (FMCN), which currently has six times the revenue that Youku has, he argues. Focus Media, he writes, has shown that it’s not hard to tap into China’s multi-billion-dollar TV ad market, with revenue for the company rising from just 480 million renminbi in 2005 to 2.2 billion in 2010.
Moreover, Mitchell sees Youku as being similar to prior darlings such as Tencent Holdings and Baidu (BIDU): Both those companies got punished for earnings growth stumbles, but in retrospect, they really established lasting franchises, he writes.
Similarly, Youku is an investment in “business franchises experiencing favorable structural changes and ignoring near-term earnings trends.”
Mitchell sees Youku turning a profit sooner than he’d expected: he raised his revenue view for this year by 11% to 742 million renminbi, while cutting his EPS loss estimate by 19% to 20 cents per share on a non-GAAP basis, and he sees a profit of one penny per share in 2012, on revenue of 1.35 billion renminbi, which would be 14% higher than he’d previously expected.
Lots of games with the MM and noticed they can take this down very quickly especially on a Holiday weekend. I hope not and closing even would make me happy today with Tuesday heading back up.
Wouldnt let me in, I tried 2 times at 27.00 just for a flip but gave up and bought YOKU on the dip for a nice profit and gave DANG the finger.
That MM over there is worse then the one on YOKU, If you put a large order in while the stock is moving higher on either one these stocks, The MM blows right by your order and wont sell you a share. but when it droping , He'll sell you all you want.
Youku.com Inc. to Release Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2010 Financial Results on February 28, 2011
Friday , February 11, 2011 08:06ET
BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading internet television company, will report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2010 unaudited financial results on Monday, February 28, 2011, after the close of the U.S. markets.
The earnings teleconference call with simultaneous webcast will take place at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, February 28, 2011 (Beijing/Hong Kong Time: 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, March 1, 2011). Youku's management will be on the call to discuss the quarterly and full year results and answer questions.
To participate in the conference call, please RSVP to Ryan Cheung by email at ryan.cheung@youku.com.
Interested parties may participate in the conference call by dialing 1-866-700-6293 (international: 1-617-213-8835) and entering passcode Youku#, 10-15 minutes prior to the initiation of the call. A replay of the call will be available by dialing 1-888-286-8010 (international 1-617-801-6888), and entering passcode 53661444#. The replay will be available through March 15, 2011.
This call will be webcast live and the replay will be available for 12 months. Both will be available on Youku's corporate web site at http://ir.youku.com .
About Youku
Youku.com Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China. Youku's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of our Class A ordinary shares, are traded on NYSE under the symbol "YOKU".
EASTUNDER, when GS said “Neutral”, it means sell/dump/short; otherwise if YOKU is a good stock, GS would rate it as a strong BUY.
So the quit period is over, I sensed an increase volume of YOKU dumping. If you are a Chinese and holding millions of YOKU shares and knowing by your heart that yoku shares not worth much at all. It’s normal for people to cash out now while price is good and netting hundreds of millions of USD from the gullible American investors?
Today YOKU lost $3.39 to close @$34.09, a 9 % loss today. I think many more 9 % loss days are coming. The exit door is narrow, the music stopped and there is only one chair left. Did you follow my advice shorting YOKU? What an opportunity of a life time to be making some decent money.
the tickerspy.com Staff, On Tuesday January 18, 2011, 12:21 pm EST
Chinese Internet stocks are enduring a rough day of trading as some tepid analyst chatter on a pair of the group's high-flying IPOs has the Chinese Internet Stocks Index trading lower by 0.6%.
E-Commerce China Dangdang (NYSE: DANG - News), the Chinese equivalent of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN - News), had more than doubled since its IPO, but that was prior to today. The shares have plunged 8% after Piper Jaffray initiated coverage of the stock with a "neutral" rating and a $30 price target. That's below where the stock currently trades. E-Commerce China Dangdang was in the news while the market was closed on Monday after it was revealed its CEO had choice words for Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS - News), one of the IPO's lead managers. The CEO took to China's version of Twitter to say Morgan Stanley undervalued his firm in the IPO and that he should have given the job to Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS - News).
Chinese video site Youku.com (NYSE: YOKU - News) is lower by 9% after Piper Jaffray initiated coverage of the stock with a "neutral" rating and $40 price target. Goldman Sachs has similar feelings, giving the stock a "neutral" rating and a $37 price target. Goldman said, while Youko is currently loss-making due to bandwidth costs, it could become heavily profitable over three or four years as it is selling less than a quarter of its available inventory.
If you have money to burn why not donate to the US charity organizations or even US Treasury Dept to reduce US debts. Why donate money (by buying YOKU stocks) to already rich Chinese national coffers?
YOKU Revenue :43.5 m Operating cash flow: -23 m Market cap: 3.87 billions
Would you buy a business that is losing money and burning investor’s cash and no chance in making a profit in the next few years with a market cap of almost 4 billion dollars? That is totally insane. I smell dot.com era coming back again.
YOKU is losing money in the foreseeable future; it may take many years before they’ll make a dime, if ever. Anybody familiar with the Chinese Stock market won’t touch YOKU with a 10 foot pole. Only the gullible American investors can be misled into buying YOKU stocks. I bet GS and other hedge funds are starting to short YOKU stocks behind the scene.
Recent stock prices were pumped up to $50 and quickly dropped to $28, then pumped to $42 and dropped to $37.5 today all within a month period. So American investors be aware and look down below, very dangerous.
eastunder, hi, again a good article and thanks for sharing.
YOKU Revenue :43.5 m Operating cash flow: -23 m Market cap: 3.87 billions
Would you buy a business that is losing money and burning investor’s cash and no chance in making a profit in the next few years with a market cap of almost 4 billion dollars? That is totally insane. I smell dot.com era coming back again.
YOKU is losing money in the foreseeable future; it may take many years before they’ll make a dime, if ever. Anybody familiar with the Chinese Stock market won’t touch YOKU with a 10 foot pole. Only the gullible American investors can be misled into buying YOKU stocks. I bet GS and other hedge funds are starting to short YOKU stocks behind the scene.
Recent stock prices were pumped up to $50 and quickly dropped to $28, then pumped to $42 and dropped to $37.5 today all within a month period. So American investors be aware and look down below, very dangerous.
There are two predictable human reactions to the hot IPOs coming out of China, and they are the same as for any investment bubble: Get in while the going is good, or sell short and hope for the sky to fall. Or if you’re a real gambler, try both in succession.
These are the natural, greedy reactions of any investor looking for action and big returns, but the China Internet and IPO craze is a classic case of caveat emptor. And also “short seller beware.” Take the two biggest exemplars of this craze in recent months, E-Commerce China Dangdang and Youku, both with stellar NYSE debuts last month. They are highly trafficked stocks whose prospects will have an impact on other newcomers and on some established, richly priced China Internet stocks.
Is Dangdang, the mostly book-selling version of China’s Amazon, worth twice its IPO price, where it was trading right after it debuted last month? Investors seem to think so, as it continues trading near its peak, but there are some potential pitfalls. E-commerce is going to be huge in China, that is assured, but we don’t know yet how big a chunk of that victory will go to Dangdang: The company faces competition from the actual Amazon, which is not giving up on China, and 360buy, which launched a price war with Dangdang and Amazon last month; Dangdang needs to move more aggressively into non-book products, but faces a juggernaut in Taobao; and Dangdang also faces future competition from big diverse retailers that will go online, like Wal-Mart, from major Internet portals looking to expand their offerings and from upstarts.
The online video site Youku, meanwhile, has taken some hits from skeptics, including me, since well before investors valued the company at nearly $4 billion and made CEO Victor Koo a billionaire. The company’s revenues are growing and will continue to do so organically as the market leader in an exciting space. But Youku is still losing lots of money and if it does become a highly profitable company, it will take years to get there.
In the intervening time, there will be obstacles, and the company’s SEC filing reinforced some of my underlying concerns about its business model — expensive bandwidth, expensive content to differentiate it from other online sites, the fact that it is in the content business in a country that highly regulates content, and the prospects of stiff competition from well-funded private and government-owned platforms.
There are short sellers circling this stock and talking their book to anyone who will listen. This short seller, for example, raises the question of whether Youku can survive as a legitimate operation that doesn’t purvey pirated videos, which have driven a lot of traffic in the past and still do on some competing video sites: “If you’re going to play by the rules in a market where no one else will, you will lose.” He mocks Youku’s deal with Warner Bros. to stream the movie “Inception” for five yuan (less than $1) a viewing, arguing that with piracy rampant online, Chinese Internet users will always seek out the free option. These short-sell manifestos can be worth reading, biased as they are, but remember that even on the chance they prove right, the stock price may say otherwise for a long time.
Both Youku and Dangdang now have plenty of ammunition, thanks to their IPOs, to build their businesses, and they and their competitors will all be spending ammunition on advertising via the dominant search company, Baidu, and the big portals like Sina and Sohu, all of whom will benefit. Does that mean Baidu is worth nearly 90 times earnings, or that Sohu is worth betting on when, as The Motley Fool notes, there is a significant short interest in the stock? These questions are as difficult to decide as it will be for investors to figure how to bet on Chinese IPO darlings, up or down.
Either way, both alertness and patience are called for — alertness because you never know when a heralded IPO will start taking a tumble due to jittery investors. Look at ChinaCache International Holdings, which jumped 95% in its October 1 opening on Nasdaq, but which has fallen more than 10% in the last week after the company filed for a secondary share offering, giving insiders an opportunity to cash out. This filing hasn’t made big headlines, but it was the kind of paperwork eagle-eyed short-sellers might have been looking for since ChinaCache soared on day one.
But ultimately it may take years to sort out how these companies will fare. So if you’re going to make a bet, be prepared to wait for the results. And in the meantime, be prepared for a roller coaster of investor sentiment that may be tied less to the fundamentals of these businesses than to the ebb and flow of the “China story.”
Two of last year's hottest China-based IPOs have their quite (lol - I bet they meant quiet. ;) periods ending soon, meaning the investment banks that were involved in the underwriting can launch equity research coverage.
Youku.com (Nasdaq: YOKU), called the YouTube of China, and China Dangdang (Nasdaq: DANG), the Amazon.com of China, both have a quite (OH FOR HEAVENS SAKES! QUIET!) period expiration of January 17th.
January 17th is a Saturday and Monday the 19th is ML King Day with market closed. The soonest analysts can start cranking out their Buy, Sell or Hold ratings on these two hot stocks will be January 20th.
Underwriters on Youku.com that could launch research coverage include Goldman Sachs, Piper Jaffray, and Pacific Crest.
Underwriters on E-Commerce China Dangdang that could launch research coverage include Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer & Co., Piper Jaffray, Cowen and Company.
Youku.com is up 191 percent and E-Commerce China Dangdang is up 98% since their December 8th debuts. How much up side is left you ask? You'll have to wait to see what the sell-side masters have say
I thought you would enjoy that since you had already mentioned you were shorting it. I think the points brought up in the article/commentary were interesting.
To pennies. eh? LOL That's funny.
I'm certainly NOT in that camp of thought. To me that's a HUGE exaggeration of possibility and a far stretch from probability.
Just for my own disclosure, linfs2 - I don't short stocks, myself. I'm more of a longterm accumulator, but I always enjoy reading the pros and cons on any stock.
eastunder, thanks for sharing the post. As you point out, YOKU's business model is basically not workable; it'll lose money years after years. Four billions dollars capitalizations is a big joke; it's only a matter of time people will find out that YOKU is not you tube of China. Some day some hedge fund people are going to short YOKU to pennies, easy money to pick up for them. Just watch, YOKU will go down soon.
Youku Business Model Already Failing: Stock Should Follow Suit
(Here's another shorts view for you linfs2. ANY links mentioned in the article actually need to be pulled up on the original Seeking Alpha which is linked directly below. I keep things in print so I can find them later off of my boards.)
The meteoric rise of Youku (YOKU) last month cast a spell over Wall Street. Financial blogs and media outlets trumpeted the arrival of the “Youtube” of China and investors immediately ran wild with it. The hype caused the stock to skyrocket to almost $50 before crashing back down to $29 and then briefly rebounding above $40 last week, where I decided to initiate a short position.
What Youku’s almost fairy tale first couple weeks of trading doesn’t tell you is that this “Youtube of China” is anything but. Most investors looking at Chinese stocks view them simply through their financial statements and their ideas of what the Chinese market looks like from their brief trips there, the couple glasses of “baijiu” pounded over lunch with management and the articles they’ve read about China. While this approach can work in a bull market, it does not substitute for on the ground knowledge of the Chinese business environment and the culture that drives it. A closer look at Youku exposes the fallacies overlooked by daytraders bidding over $4B for a company with a failing business model that lost $25 million in the first 3 quarters of 2010 and over $100 million since inception.
First off, a major mistake is misconstruing Youku for a Youtube. We all know Youtube as the website where we watch Charlie biting his brother’s finger or watch pandas sneezing. Most Youtube videos are just such user generated content (UGC). Youku started out with this business plan, but quickly decided UGC was a dead end in China (only 20% of its videos today are UGC). I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Chinese internet cafes observing the clientele who spend the majority of their time watching copyrighted full length TV shows and movies while surfing the internet or playing games. Youku realizes this too and in its early stages captured a large portion of this massive audience by allowing users to upload full-length videos, including copyright infringing videos, until recently. In short, Chinese don’t log onto Youku to watch a chipmunk with a dramatic stare, but to watch the latest episodes of copyrighted content such as Grey’s Anatomy, Korean soap operas or the news.
Not surprisingly, as Youku grew infringement lawsuits started piling up. Youku’s first response was to change its business plan again to spend millions licensing increasingly expensive professionally produced content that accounts for 70% of its videos today (the remaining 10% is expensive original content produced by Youku itself). The cost of professionally produced content, according to Youku, is astronomically rising and is the major challenge to its current business model since advertisers pay very low rates and users refuse to pay anything at all. According to Youku’s own IPO filing (page 17, available here):
The market prices for professionally produced content, especially popular movies and television serial dramas, have increased significantly in China during the past few years. For example, according to our internal records, the average license fee for television serial drama has increased in 2009 by more than 200% as compared to 2008, and such fee has increased in 2010 to date by more than 100% as compared to 2009. The average license fee for movies has also increased in 2010 to date by more than 90% as compared to 2009.
Compared to the rapidly rising costs for content acquisition, the fees advertisers pay Yokou have barely budged. Youku suffers from intense competition for advertising dollars from numerous smaller sites that still freely distribute infringing content. This is the worst kind of diseconomy of scale. The bigger Youku gets, the bigger its losses.
Pressure from the Chinese government for the larger players to remove infringing content peaked in January 2010, when Youku removed large amounts of infringing content from its servers by implementing a digital fingerprinting technology meant to root out all copyright infringing material (article here).
As the chart of daily unique visitors below shows, Youku’s site traffic immediately collapsed 75%. In October traffic rebounded somewhat but in November the Chinese government renewed aggressive calls for the continued removal of infringing material from streaming servers just prior to Youku's IPO (as stated in an article here). Youku is complying, killing its traffic, and forcing it to pour increasingly large amounts of capital into licensing fees since its December IPO. Now with most of the illegally uploaded content removed, Youku’s traffic according to Google Trends has more or less flat-lined since the IPO and is half of what it was just one year ago despite seeing an uptick since October
Anticipating its desperate need for more revenues to pay for rising licensing costs, Youku in early 2010 began experimenting with charging for its videos via its Youku Premium service. With this latest change to its business plan, Youku hopes Chinese users will pay to view what was previously free on Youku (cue cheers from Hollywood and laughs from Youku’s legions of copyright infringing competitors)!
The company recently announced that it had bought the rights to stream the hit Warner Bros movie “Inception” on its premium on-demand paid video service (article here). But Youku has now left itself at a hopeless disadvantage to competitors who stream copyrighted material just hours after it hits the big screen in America. “Inception”, for one, was commonplace on Chinese streaming sites at least six months ago. What Chinese person is going to pay to watch it now?
Youku also recently announced a deal with Disney to stream 5 seasons of Desperate Housewives (article here). This purely “political” will further please Hollywood and government regulators but spells disaster for investors. No one seriously thinks Chinese viewers will pay for content and there is little belief that, at the end of the day, the revenue from ads and the tiny fee for a la carte video or subscription services can offset the massive cost of content that Youku admits is doubling each year! It is common knowledge in China that if one video website takes infringing videos down due to an IPO or government pressure, consumers immediately switch to smaller websites willing to stream them for free.
What the “wangba” (internet café in Chinese) user demands will be supplied! It took me only a few seconds to find exactly what I wanted (US TV shows, movies etc.) on other lesser-known websites such as ppstream.com, 56.com, zoltv.com etc. The fact remains, the Chinese will not pay for content that can easily be found elsewhere, not to mention that if it can’t be found streaming online, Chinese will simply revert back to their failsafe: BitTorrenting or just buying it from a DVD hawker on the street! The majority of Chinese internet users are living in tier 2, 3 and 4 cities and don’t have much else in the form of entertainment except to go to the internet café. None of them are going to pay 5 RMB ($0.75) to watch a movie on top of having to pay to use the internet café. It simply is beyond their budget, especially since it was free before and continues to be free from any number of competing sites. In a country where rampant inflation of food prices is already biting deeply into the average person’s disposable income, there is little chance that 5 RMB will be spent on a movie that was once free.
As Shane Farley pointed out (here), playing nice to Hollywood and charging for content actually acts as a strong competitive disadvantage creating diseconomy of scale for Youku. If you’re going to play by the rules in a market where no one else will, you will lose. Youku has boxed itself in by going legit, with site traffic stalled for a year now as users depart for other websites. Who wants to own a business losing customers with rapidly rising costs relative to its competitors? Apparently only daytraders and only for a few minutes!
With no growth in traffic, hemorrhaging $25 million during the first 3 quarters of 2010 and having already burned through $160 million in venture capital funding, according to Xiao Zhixiang of International Data Corporation Youku had no choice but to go public or go bust. In a China Daily article (link here), Xiao states
There is no other option for Youku […] except filing an IPO. If they could not get listed, it would be hard for them to get more venture investment to continue and some video websites hosted by portals and search engines, such as tv.sohu.com and qiyi.com, may surpass them in short time.
To add further confusion, before the IPO, Youku and Goldman Sachs were hoping to get a $1 billion valuation priced at $12.80. Given their knowledge of the financials and the company’s situation, they believed that $12.80 was a fare price. To jump from what was thought to be a fare valuation of $1 billion to over $4 billion in a few weeks is astonishing given Youku’s urgent need to IPO in order to keep their operation afloat.
Obviously from a financial perspective, the bloated valuation of Youku at over $4 billion looks absurd compared to its peers SINA, SOHU, and BIDU, as shown recently by Chimin Sang (here). No matter how you look at it, Youku stock is overvalued and the market is now beginning to realize that Youku’s business model is failing and will continue to fail until the company dramatically downsizes its dreams and shrinks its video offerings until they can be paid for out of its meager advertising revenues.
Three years from now, even at $3 this stock will still not be cheap.
Disclosure: I am short YOKU. ********************************************************
gas, you make me laugh!!!!! what is a chart that is three weeks old realy going to tell you? Secondly, why is it a bad omen that this dipped below 30? its a new issue the break was simple, the people that bought it early took profit from the ones who were buying at the 40-50 and those sheeple bailed. Come on,this stock is going to 100+ watch
BEIJING, Jan.4, 2011/PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading Internet television company, announced today that it has partnered with a major Hollywood studio on transactional on-demand streaming for one of the hottest films through Youku Premium.
The movie Inception from Warner Bros, one of the top films of 2010, is now available on Youku Premium, Youku's beta on-demand paid video service. In addition to online on-demand broadcast rights to Inception, Youku also has online resale rights for the film. Youku Premium was launched in beta in early 2010, enabling users to watch advertisement-free premium content, such as high-definition movies.
Youku has set up a dedicated page for Inception (http://store.youku.com/inception) where paying Youku users can not only watch the hit film anywhere, and on any internet-enabled device, but also interact with other users to comment, share other film recommendations, or discuss the film's famously twisty plot.
In addition to top-grossing films, Youku Premium also features more than 10,000 hours of lectures and self-study materials offered in partnership with ChinaEDU, Crystal Education, and other partners. Wherever possible, titles are offered in high definition.
"Through building long-term partnerships with copyright holders and communicating with our media partners, Youku Premium is creating a whole new way for people to find and watch the content they want, when they want it," said Youku founder and CEO Victor Koo.
The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) recently announced that China was home to 450 million Internet users, and with the rapid ascent of broadband Internet access, that number continues to grow.
About Youku
Youku.com Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our mission is to become the primary source of video content for Chinese internet users across all Internet-enabled devices.
Youku offers a combination of licensed professional content, user-generated content and self-produced web video content. According to iResearch, Youku attracts approximately 203 million monthly unique visitors from homes and offices and 56 million monthly unique visitors from Internet cafes in September 2010. Youku has a 40% share of total user time spent viewing online videos among Chinese internet users during the second quarter of 2010, according to iResearch. Youku was launched in December 2006.
For more information, please contact: Jean Shao Sr. Manager of International Communications, Youku.com Tel: +86-10-5885-1881 x7128 Email: shaodan@youku.com
A great post, I am a Chinese American and a frequent visitor of both youku.com and tudou.com. Both company offer videos and movies for free viewing. I never paid a penny to the sites for viewing their contents. And I would say 99 % of people won’t pay anything except the premium members. To me there are enough free contents to keep me busy just watching these Chinese sop opera and movies, so why pay anything at all.
It is a hoax to claim YOKU or Tudou.com is a facebook type operation, far from it. Just visit the site and see for yourself. YOKU should be priced under $1, yet today YOKU is traded @38.50 pre market. What a great opportunity to short YOKU above $38.
Youku.com Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our mission is to become the primary source of video content for Chinese internet users across all Internet-enabled devices.
Youku offers a combination of licensed professional content, user-generated content and self-produced web video content. According to iResearch, Youku attracts approximately 203 million monthly unique visitors from homes and offices and 61 million monthly unique visitors from Internet cafes, and has a 40% share of total user time spent viewing online videos among Chinese internet users. Youku.com was launched in December 2006.
the initial public offering totaled 18,224,855 ADSs
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