Video-sharing Web site Youku.com, which is trying to position itself as China's next YouTube, has tied up with News Corp.-invested social-networking site MySpace China to target the local market. The partnership is aimed at driving Internet traffic to both Web sites and sharing online products, Youku Chief Executive Victor Koo said in a statement on Friday. By November last year, Youku had completed three rounds of venture financing totaling $40 million, including funding from Brookside Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital, and Chengwei Ventures.
Launched in December 2006, Youku has more than 100 million daily video views, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings. MySpace China is a locally owned, operated, and managed company that has secured investment from Rupert Murdoch's MySpace.com, publisher IDG, and China Broadband Capital Partner, a fund operated by Edward Tian, the former chief of China Netcom Group. China, which had 210 million Web users at the end of last year, has since overtaken the United States as the world's biggest Internet market by number of users, Beijing-based research firm BDA said on Thursday.
