Tudou Shifts Strategy, Will Move Away from Licensed TV Shows, Movies

Tudou.com is set to change its content strategy, and will stop trying to compete on increasingly pricey licensed/copyrighted movies and TV shows, in a strategic shift signaled over the weekend by its CEO, Gary Wang.

Marking a divergence from the TV-like – or Hulu-like – aspirations of Youku.com, and Baidu-owned Qiyi.com, Tudou will instead focus on two kinds of ‘self-produced’ content: high-budget animations, drama, comedy series, and lower-budget user-generated content (UGC) that somewhat resembles video podcasts – a content approach that Tudou has been trying for a little while, and likes to call UGC 2.0, to differentiate it from users’ general, random uploads.

Recently, after the Tudou Video Festival which showcased such UGC 2.0 works, the company was running with the mantra that “Everyone is the director of life”, so it wasn’t too surprising when Gary Wang – original name Wang Wei – said in the staff meeting in Beijing the other day that Tudou “will focus above all on self-made and UGC content,” but with the proviso that it “will not reduce the investment in this area of ​​copyright,” – to quote a Chinese visual media news site, but not Mr Wang’s actual words.

No mention was made of Tudou’s long-awaited US IPO, however.

Leading the way, or losing ground?

The move away from competing fully against Youku, Qiyi and PPStream for viewers’ attentions with so much copyrighted content looks set to remove some of those licensed shows from Tudou, gradually over time, such as the TV series Lost (pictured above), as well as the tear-jerker Korean romantic drama serials that are so popular amongst Chinese youngsters. It’ll remain to be seen if that impacts the number of visitors going to the Tudou site.

At the moment, Tudou has a 17% share of Chinese video market, compared to the 22% enjoyed by Youku.

For a flavour of Tudou’s UGC 2.0 content, and to evaluate whether it’s the right move to make in the market now – in terms of viewers and attracting ad revenue – head over to the Creative section of the Tudou site and take a look around. or, check out this embedded video of a student-produced 12-minute animation about a hapless and timid crocodile kid…

[Source: Rboke.com]