Youku Tudou and Alibaba Group Collaborate to Innovate Online Video Marketing

BEIJING, Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Youku Tudou Inc. (NYSE: YOKU), China's leading Internet television company ("Youku Tudou"), and Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) today announced that the two companies will work together to drive the adoption of big data in marketing in China. Alibaba Group's online marketing technology platform, Alimama, will use its data and technology to support innovative online video marketing techniques, i.e. View and Buy developed by Youku, and Merchants' Video Channel developed by Tudou; and help small companies to improve their operations with data and make online video marketing services more accessible to them. 

Alimama announced earlier this year that it would launch online video marketing services in collaboration with major video websites in China to help widen the relevance and reach of online video marketing by Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com merchants to a broader base of customers. Today's announcement represents a deepening of the existing collaboration by working together with Youku Tudou on data and technology.

"This collaboration is benefiting from the combination of advantages from both sides. The Youku Tudou Cloud and Alibaba's data and technology will collaboratively bring consumer behavior in media and entertainment and consumer behavior in products and services closer together. Both parties will work in stride to realize the "Screen is Channel" and the "Content is Storefront" vision, creating strong synergies between the domains of media and entertainment, and commerce and payment. By working together, we will work to usher in the new online plus offline era." said Victor Koo, Chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou.

"We will build the marketing infrastructure with Youku Tudou in the big data era with the aim of creating value for small companies with data, improving user experience, and building a simple yet highly effective ecosystem that can benefit all participants," added Jonathan Lu, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

At the announcement event, Alimama also formally launched its open Data Management Platform (Alimama DMP). Through this platform, Alibaba Group works with brands and merchants to enhance understanding of their customer data and to direct targeted marketing to a broader base of consumers with similar attributes. For buyers, Alibaba Group uses its data to create a better shopping experience by personalizing search results and shopping recommendations.

Youku Tudou and Alimama will also jointly establish a Marketing Innovation Lab in addition to the Big Data cooperation. This lab will aim to drive development of innovative online video marketing techniques and products such as View and Buy and Merchants' Video Channel. As indicated by the name "View and Buy," a consumer can click on merchandise that appears in the video they're viewing and make a purchase without interrupting the playback. The Merchants' Video Channel gives merchants an opportunity to market their products and services by themselves where they can create fun videos to promote their products, get consumers' attention and trigger purchasing actions.

The two marketing techniques/products are a result of the seamless collaboration between Youku Tudou and Alibaba Group. Youku Tudou leverages video viewing behavior data to help merchants identify and advertise during the right timing and context in videos and to find and recommend relevant products to specific consumers.

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 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."

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.

Alibaba Group's major businesses include:

• Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com), China's largest online shopping destination
• Tmall.com (www.tmall.com), China's largest online third-party platform for brands and retailers
• Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com), China's most popular online group buying marketplace
• Alitrip (www.alitrip.com), a leading online travel booking platform
• AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a global online marketplace for consumers to buy directly from China
• Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com), China's largest global online wholesale platform for small businesses
• 1688.com (www.1688.com), a leading online wholesale marketplace in China
• Alibaba Cloud Computing (www.aliyun.com), a leading provider of cloud computing services to businesses and entrepreneurs

Alibaba Group also provides payment and/or escrow services on its marketplaces through its contractual arrangements with Ant Financial Services Group, a related company of Alibaba Group which operates Alipay (www.alipay.com).

Through China Smart Logistics (or Zhejiang Cainiao Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.), a 48%-owned affiliate, Alibaba Group operates a central logistics information system that connects a network of express delivery companies in China.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Youku Tudou

Jay Chen
[email protected]
(+8610) 5885-1881 x 7161

Alibaba Group

Robert H. Christie
[email protected]
+1 917 860 9410

Florence Shih
[email protected]
+852 2215 5114

For investor enquiries, please contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]  

SOURCE Youku Tudou Inc.

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