Tudou, Youku to merge, make $1b streaming video giant
updated 10:55 am EDT, Mon March 12, 2012
Tudou and Youku to tie up
The Internet video space grew significantly in scale Monday after Youku offered to buy local rival Tudou. The voluntary takeover would see Youku buy all of Tudou's stock for an equivalent over $1 billion. The Tudou badge would continue to exist, but the two would operate under a unified Youku Tudou company.
The deal is waiting on shareholder and government approval.
Both sites were already considered Chinese equivalents to YouTube through a mix of both amateur and professional video content. Although considerably smaller than their Google-run American counterpart, the scale of the Chinese market has left room open for them to grow larger as more people get online and get high speed Internet access.
American companies have just started acknowledging the sites in their own content. Apple is planning to support Tudou and Youku video sharing in OS X Mountain Lion and may end up having just one overarching service to support in the future. [via paidContent]
