China’s biggest video site, Youku.com, has revamped and relaunched its search feature, creating a more stripped-down and focused search engine for browsing the site’s videos. It now resides at Soku.com, and bears more of a resemblance to Google’s minimalist homepage.
Soku itself is not entirely new, but this doubling-down on search represents a new move by Youku, and is being touted by the company as their emphasis on “everything about video”. The new search page features only Trends, Movies, and TV Shows as options, and seems designed to get users deeper into Youku’s licensed and self-commissioned content – which is a mix of free and paid – rather than their user-generated videos.
I’ve just had a go on the new Soku.com, and find that the search results are clear and nicely laid out, and very fast, replete with large movie/show artwork. Below is the top listing for a popular TV show at the moment on Youku; the numbers you can see are a quick and useful way to dive right into any one of its 32 episodes:
Linking up
Youku also recently revealed that its Link feature – an API for third-party website login, and one-click social sharing – has expanded to four major Chinese social networks. Now users can sign into Youku.com with their accounts from RenRen, Sina, Mop.com, or Tencent (either their Qzone, Pengyou.com SNS, or Weibo), and thereby enable the sharing of more info – such as a thumbs-up, or a comment – than just a simple old link. On average, across the four major Chinese social network, users using Youku Link share 650,000 Youku videos every day on each site.
Youku looks to be hedging its bets on China’s two biggest Twitter clones – Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo – by giving each equal prominence and inter-connectivity. The company also revealed that (perhaps inevitably, since it is “China’s YouTube”) it is the biggest source of videos on the two microblogging platforms.
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
