Paul Salo
October 25th, 2010
Shanghai
Dutch born Tudou Founder Marc van der Chijs is on top of the world in Shanghai as his creation moves ever closer to a US IPO. Gary Wang, current CEO, said that Tudou has appointed a syndicate of Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank to float the stock.
Tudou’s success comes with an asteric due to the fact that it’s main rival, Youtube, is blocked in mainland China and most of its market growth came after the block. However, Gary Wang points out correctly that, in fact, Tudou was founded approximately one month before Youtube. Regardless, Tudou now is China’s largest video sharing site with over 400 million users who spend an average of 30 minutes per day watching videos. It’s a very sticky site for local users and has monetized its users with advertising more effectively than Youtube according to internet guru, Mike Chen.
Temasek, who invested $300 Million in the Agricultural Bank of China pre IPO, also participated in Tudou’s first round investment of $35 million USD in August. Tudou is expecting to raise approximately $150 million in their US debut.
