Tudou.com (Chinese: 土豆网) is the largest online video sharing platform in China, where users can upload, view and share video clips. Tudou went live on April 15, 2005 and has grown into one of the world’s largest content delivery networks, serving over 300 million videos each day with more than 50,000 new videos published daily, including amateur content such as video-blogging and user-generated videos, and professional content such as movie clips, TV series and music videos from our content partners. Tudou has established extensive business relationships with over 2500 well-known content providers, content agents, traditional and new media, as well as mobile operators in the Asian region. With the brand slogan “everyone is his own director of life,” Tudou’s vision is building a video destination where people can find what they want to see, share what they create, and connect with like-minded people. Tudou never stops working toward this vision since 2005.
Tudou was founded by CEO Gary Wang in 2005. The name Tudou is Chinese pinyin (romanized Chinese) for “potato.” Tudou’s vision is become the core video entertainment & content platform for young Chinese consumers anytime, anywhere, and through any device they use- watch what they want, share what they create. Tudou Video Festival, a trademark online video industry event taking place in spring every year, is an initiative best symbolizes the Made-for-Internet creative energy that assembles young creative talents, content industry players, new media and mobile operators, and advertisers to jointly celebrate outstanding video works of the year and explore new content development & integration possibilities.
Financially Tudou has raised several rounds of funding, the latest being $57 million in spring 2008 for a total of $85 million over series A to D. Tudou investors include Crescent Point，IDG China，GGV Capital，and General Catalyst.
Business wise, Tudou focuses on advertising model as its core revenue model. Tudou advertising platform was launched in 2007 with advanced video and image interactive advertising capabilities. The most popular and engaging advertising on Tudou are video pre-roll & mid-roll ads, as well as full screen wallpaper ads around the video during playback. Top tier advertisers working with Tudou include adidas, Ford, HP, KFC, Lenovo, Motorola, Nike, Pepsi, P&G, Samsung, Sony, Unilever, with more joining. Tudou ad platform allows advertisers to manage budget and provides various targeting capability ranging from geographic, day-part, content, to contextual targeting. With content providers, Tudou also share advertising revenue with both individuals and commercial producers contributing contents to the site.
Starting 2009 Tudou works closely with China Mobile and other regional operators, mobile and handheld device manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola to extend its video services and content offerings to the broader mobile phone consumer base.