Youku Releases Dedicated Mobile "Paike" Video-Blogging Apps

BEIJING, Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku, Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading Internet television company ("Youku"), recently released iOS and Android apps to support Youku Paike ("video bloggers"). The new apps are designed to complement the feature set of Youku's existing mobile clients with dedicated video shooting and uploading functionality, and to highlight the social media aspects of video blogging through its integration with the popular SINA Weibo microblogging platform.

The new Paike apps emphasize the social media aspects of online video. Users can choose other video bloggers to follow, easily find the most popular user uploaded videos, and publish Paike video to SINA Weibo microblog site with one-touch sharing. The size of Youku's platform and the easy connectivity of its Youku Link video sharing system have made Youku the most widely-used source of videos on SINA Weibo.

Unlike the official Youku mobile client applications, which were designed to focus on video watching experience, the Paike apps were designed to highlight the video blogging experience. The streamlined interface allows users to quickly shoot, upload, and share videos.

"As smartphones become more popular, more and more users are effectively walking around with HD video cameras in their pockets," said Youku Chief Technology Officer Jian Yao. "While we aim to provide best-in-class mobile video viewing experience with our client for smartphones, we also want to make mobile video shooting, uploading, and sharing just as easy and convenient. The mobile Paike apps will let our video bloggers share stories as they happen, without ever having to connect their cameras to a PC."

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the key elements of Youku's content strategy, which also covers licensed professionally produced content and in-house produced content. Since declaring 2007 the "Year of the Paike", Youku has worked to foster Paike culture among China's growing number of DV camera owners.

Youku recorded an average of 100,000 daily UGC uploads in Q3 2011. According to the recent report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China now has over 356 million mobile internet users. In 2011, Youku mobile client had been installed on more than 50% of the smartphones available in China.

Download links:

iOS:
http://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/id492031078

Android:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.youku.paike

About Youku

Youku Inc. is China's leading Internet television company. Our Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China. Youku's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of our Class A ordinary shares, are traded on NYSE under the symbol "YOKU."

For more information, please contact:

Media Relations:
Jean Shao
Director, International Communications
Youku Inc.
Tel: +86-10-5885-1881 x7128
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Youku.com Inc.