China’s Video King Youku Tudou: “Mobile is Key For Growth”

In a teleconference with international media which I called into earlier, the recently merged Youku Tudou’s (NYSE:YOKU) company president Liu Dele said that mobile is a key area for growth on the firm’s two sites, Youku and Tudou. Liu revealed that mobile-based visits account for 15 percent of Youku.com’s traffic, stating that mobile will be a major part of growth in the future. The Youku Tudou team expects mobile users to grow “very quickly.”

It’s a logical move, given that the mobile web is indeed gaining steam, surpassing PC internet users in China. And I bet a lot of folks, like myself, love watching online videos on tablets.

To position itself for the mobile wave, CEO Victor Koo said that Youku Tudou has ensured an ubiquitous experience for viewers, from smart TVs, tablets, to smartphones. Koo made the point that Youku’s iOS app is a good example of doing things well on the mobile front.

The latest Youku iOS app is able to sync and “know” the videos you watched on your smartphone, tablet, and desktop. So if you start watching a video on your tablet, you can watch it while on the move on your smartphone and then finish watching it at home on your PC, all without losing your place. Let’s not forget that Youku also has Youku Paike, a mobile app launched earlier this year that makes it easy for users to shoot and upload self-made videos of newsy or fun events.

At this stage, the Youku Tudou mobile strategy is as simple as providing a seamless mobile experience for users. One that doesn’t leave a gap between desktop and mobile devices. And as a whole, Koo remarked that maintaining a high quality of content is still the key to keeping and attracting new users. That means licensing more good content, like movies and TV series, for users to enjoy, and also producing more original content. Koo also shared that Youku Tudou did acquire a small production studio to enhance its production team, but that the news wasn’t announced publicly.

On international expansion, Koo said:

[We have] lots of overseas Chinese coming to Youku Tudou […] But at this point of time, we’re still very much focused on the China local market.