Chinese media is filled today about news that Wang Wei, founder and CEO of the Chinese online video company Tudou.com, has denied a rumor of plans for his company to go public.
Previous reports in local media stated that Wang revealed Tudou.com's plans to launch an initial public offering in the fourth quarter of 2010 during the company's recent staff meeting, but the rumor was denied by Wang and he said the company will inform the media first if the company has such a plan.
However, Tudou.com announced that it plans to invest CNY100 million to expand its content in 2010 and create more exclusive programs and self-made digital video contents will be available on the website. With this move, the company is expected to achieve an overall balance between income and expenditure, and even possibly make a profit in 2010.
Chinese video websites have been facing profit problems in China. On one hand, bandwidth costs and high copyright fees have become a bottleneck of making profit; on the other hand, it is not easy for these video websites, suffering pirated contents and copyright disputes, to gain favor from overseas capital markets. Most importantly, these privately owned video website companies are competing with possible intrusion by state-run video sites that have official content approved by the Chinese government.
Another Chinese video website, Youku.com, previously stated it had not plan to get listed; while Letv.com, which said it planned to get listed in 2009, has not taken any action yet.
