Tudou Video Festival Empowers UGC Talents with Sponsors and Marketing Support

BEIJING, June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In a high-spirited ceremony at the Tudou Video Festival, Tudou.com (subsidiary of Youku Tudou Inc., NYSE: "YOKU") unveiled a series of measures to boost its commitment to user-generated content, including an innovative new fund that will empower its UGC talents by connecting them with sponsors to launch their careers onto a larger platform.

The fund, first sponsored by corporations like Deerway, Ford, and DHL, will help Tudou's talents by providing multi-faceted support as they attempt to translate their Tudou fame into more lucrative and sustainable success on mainstream media platforms. The fund will commission branded content productions, while also providing seed money for more offbeat, experimental creations.

Tudou also announced that it will upgrade its revenue sharing plan, expanding eligibility to a wider range of talents. Users who apply and are accepted to the revenue sharing program will receive extensive financial, technical, and marketing support, including having their videos prioritized in search results on Tudou.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the sixth-annual Tudou Video Festival featured a live exhibition of video projects from more than 100 contributors – 71 talented amateurs and 22 professional filmmakers. Attendees of the festival traveled booth-to-booth to explore the high-quality original content, then voted on four awards: Best Project, Best Marketing Potential, Most Creative, and Crowd Favorite. Each award included a cash prize. Among the 1,700 delegates to the Festival were noted filmmaker Peter Chan; trendsetting TV producer Wang Weizhong; Gao Feng, the vice president of CCTV; Yong Younchul, the Chairman of the Busan International Short Film Festival; Roger Garcia, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Film Festival; and Endo Hitoshi, producer of the Japanese TV drama Shinya Shokudo.

Hailed as China's Sundance, the Tudou Video Festival has always been Tudou's signature event for promoting and incubating UGC talents. Last year's Festival award winner Always Wet went on to create the talk show "Speak Out," which racked up 35 million views on Tudou. This year's festival, held on June 8^th at the foot of the Great Wall, hit historic heights, attracting 20% more entries than last year. Tudou put out a call for submissions in February and over the next few months received a staggering 18,000 entries, from which 200 finalists were selected. All of the festival entries together have earned more than 200 million views on Tudou since they were released.

Since its August 2012 merger with Youku, Tudou has been working on further strengthening its independent, free-spirit reputation. Weidong Yang, President of Tudou said, "This festival represents the beginning of Tudou 2.0. We will continue to deliver the youthful, fresh content that our users love, while also crafting a more interactive, social, and business-minded Tudou experience. The 2.0 strategy means that we will fully support our users as they work to get their voices heard on mainstream network media platforms."

About Youku Tudou Inc.

Youku Tudou Inc. (NYSE: YOKU) is China's leading Internet television company. Its Youku and Tudou Internet television platforms enable users to search, view, and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Its Youku brand and Tudou brand are among the most recognized online video brands in China. Youku Tudou's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of Youku Tudou's Class A ordinary shares, are traded on the NYSE under the symbol "YOKU."

CONTACT: 
Jean Shao
Director of International Communications
Tel: (+8610) 5885-1881 x7128
Email: [email protected]

Ryan Cheung
Corporate Finance Director
Youku Tudou Inc.
Tel: (+8610) 5885-1881 x6090
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Youku Tudou Inc.