| Page 3 of 3 < |
Tech Boom Sweeps China, But Some Sense a Bubble
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Like BabyTree and Baihe, Gary Wang's video-sharing site Tudou is a survivor. A year ago, Wang said, there were some 300 competing Web sites. Now, he said, there are pretty much only three.
Working late into the evening in Shanghai in an old converted townhouse whose walls have been covered with employees' graffiti and doodling, Wang spoke of his vision to "do away with editors, with 24-hour TV, with all these government controls."
On principle, he refuses to consider any business model that charges video creators to use the site and said that he's convinced that the key to profitability will be "click-throughs" -- the number of people who click on a video. Since the company's Web site went live in April 2005, the number of advertisers has grown steadily and it now counts Adidas and McDonald's as major clients.
Wang, 34, who returned to China after graduating with a computer science degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, refused to estimate when the company might become profitable but said he hopes it will be "self-sufficient" by the end of next year. The dream IPO is probably years away.
Wang said he knows that if the fate of his competitors is any indication, odds are against him and his investors, U.S.-based IDG Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, General Catalyst Partners and several other VCs. But, he said, "if the chance for success is low, that makes life a little more interesting."
Staff writer David Cho in Washington contributed to this report.
