Tudou Develops UGC2.0 to Lead the Online Video Market

SHANGHAI, May 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Tudou has got intention of over 10 million yuan to purchase video projects on Tudou Video Festival 2011, marking the evolution of user generated content evolution to UGC2.0.

Tudou.com had integrated China's major copyrighted content buyers and original internet video creators to establish the China's largest cross-media video industry cooperation platform during the Tudou Video Festival 2011 on May 14, a move to push the evolution of user-generated content, according to Tudou insiders.

It is estimated that the potential purchase value between these content producers and copyright buyers is about 10 million yuan, with a top investment from a production organization of more than 2 million yuan. According to Tudou's officials, Tudou has further obtained creation human resource and business models among original content creator group through the Tudou Festival, with a theme of "Creating, Existing".

Integration

The number of video clips in the Tudou Festival 2011 was close to 10 thousand, 120% growth from last year. Through a new form of podcast road show, Tudou required podcasters to recommend their own works, play samples and carry out promotion and professional assessment of the projects. The festival judges for film, animation, network drama were from well-known production, copyright, advertising organizations or professional producers.

Since collecting works and projects six months ago, video reviewing for two months and final reviewing for one month, dozens of key projects had been on final road show during the Festival.

Among them, each one is an operational project in the market with sectors including content introduction, team introduction, operation program, and promotion plan and budget assessment section.

The project will be solicited for all partner agencies with professional assessment (after four partners' professional assessment to be recommended to other participating institutions). Now they are covering film, animation, network drama and advertising areas.

Outstanding works will be chosen to attend foreign film festivals. Valuable talent and teams will be heavily invested by one-million yuan director fund founded by Tudou, Tudou's home-made drama division and outside investors like film and television production and advertising agencies, which are with potential investment intention of over 10 million yuan.

Through the video road show projects, large-scale copyright and content buyers can pick out directors and other production talents for original contents. At the same time, through Tudou's cooperation with the organizations, Tudou establishes industry channels to help podcasters to enter into the formal commercial industry platform. Meanwhile, Tudou's home-made drama division will choose talented podcast directors and invest by its own money to make them net drama directors. For example, many outstanding works including original animated short films "Shoes, Shoes" and original short film "Variation of Men" appeared.

Innovative and energetic Chinese original video creator group, including Mao Qichao and Shen Ao, has formed. Actually, it's an important opportunity for these original works teams to find institutional investment for the projects.

In fact, these teams and video works were in rehearsal during the film reviewing session and appreciated by director and many film firms. Well-known director Manfred Wong (Wen Jun) is willing to cooperate on the next film with a Tudou UGC (user-generated content) creator Wang Zizhao, whose works was called "Fearless".

Evolution to UGC2.0

The potential investors are a large number of powerful organizations, including the China Film Group, Bona Film Group, Angel Wings Film Investment Corporation, Nickelodeon children's channel, You Yang media, Alumni Park, Ciwen Media, Xuandong Cartoon, Golden Eagle Cartoon Network, Kaku TV, Stellar Group and Hairun Movies &TV. These institutions have understood the evolution of production teams and their levels in the UGC platform.

Film critics Cheng Qingsong says that the user-generated video clip has become a professional film and television category through the development from its original characters like small pieces to make fun. Tudou Festival has provided a good platform for the development of China's original film and TV works.

This is China's new UGC platform evolution from UGC1.0 in the previous stage, when user generated video contents are filled with personal entertainment comedy and shooting of strange adventures. With Tudou's training and cultivation for six years, UGC platform has evolved to a more specialized and commercialized UGC 2.0 platform, which allows large organizations to do scaled orders and purchase contents.

"We found a lot of good creative teams able to shoot network dramas and web-based advertising with virus-type spread," a senior advertising executive told reporters (which can refer to: Deputy Director of Ogilvy & Mather for creation Dong Dongqiang). He revealed that it was very difficult to find creators or teams to produce content for institutional clines in the UGC platform previously. But they appear in a large scale now. It's a clear trend that the budgets are moving to online video advertising sector with a market volume of 10 billion yuan in the Chinese advertising market. Advertisers including Nokia and Budweiser all hope to find good teams to produce video contents which can trigger a virus-type spread effect in social networks. It's Tudou that can provide this network and platform to integrate both supply and demand sides.

The original video production persons and teams are studied and regarded as "resources" and investment targets by professional organizations. Those "resources" include Ruige Jia Shang, Lok Hei Culture Media, Tomorrow Pictures, Zhong Yi Bao Long, Dream Group Studios, BigForce Film Studio, Blue and White Brothers.

In fact, UGC (user-generated content) is one of the real barriers in the video platform industry. Because purchase of the external copyrighted content still results in homogeneous competition and it can't form a video platform with high user loyalty. Only the combination of UGC, home-made and procurement can form a complete puzzle of a video platform with user loyalty. Only with the UGC evolution to large-scale commercial development of the UGC2.0 state, firms can discover true potential value. Tudou is the first company in China to develop and promote that business model.

Currently, an internet animation works "The Adventures of Li Xianji" in the Tudou's platform has been remade into a cinema film. Famous UGC creators like showjoy, Super Baozi and Pi San are popular among internet video production sector and favored by 4A firms, which brought them more than 500,000 of annual revenue from advertising video production. They are new generation of internet millionaires.

Moreover, talents will be chosen to attend Tudou's talent training plan called "No. 6 Warehouse", participating Tudou 's home-made drama project called "Orange Box". They also benefit from Tudou's one-million funds for directors and click-based income sharing incentive mechanisms.

It's Tudou's nut that "Every one is the director of life". In the content level, Tudou has "Original Beans" project for UGC, "Tudou Festival" to encourage and dig creative talents, latest "Orange Box" for home-made dramas and "No. 6 Warehouse" for talents reserve system. Tudou has established a complete platform for building industrial chain loop, with strategic planning closely related to originality and creativity.

SOURCE Tudou.com