BIZCHINA / Overseas Investment |
US firms invest US$23.5m in UUSee(Shanghai Daily)Updated: 2007-03-07 13:41 A group of US venture capital firms, including Disney's investment arm, were set to announce today that they had invested US$23.5 million in UUSee, a major Chinese site for Web video. UUSee distributes live and on-demand TV from CCTV, China's largest TV broadcaster; CSAT, China's largest satellite TV company; and Beijing TV. The content includes subtitled US shows like "CSI: Miami" and "24." The investment round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Highland Capital Partners. It included Steamboat Ventures, the venture-capital vehicle of The Walt Disney Co. Two other firms, Sequoia Capital and Susquehanna International Group, invested in UUSee in a previous round and joined in this one, The Associated Press reported. The site has 36 million registered users, making it China's largest Web TV operator, according to Dan Nova of Highland. "It really is the country's and the world's largest Web TV operator," Nova said. He will join UUSee's board along with DFJ's Barry Schuler, the former chief executive of America Online. There is no close equivalent to UUSee in the US, where the TV shows and movies that are available online are spread out among several sites owned by TV networks and online titans like Google Inc. "There's no one leading Web TV operator here in the United States," Nova said. "In many ways I think China is a lot more advanced, when it comes to the organization and distribution of video content." UUSee distributes the videos from servers, but to reduce long-distance Internet traffic, it also has a feature that uses viewers' computers to distribute video to other, nearby viewers. It's the only peer-to-peer network approved by Chinese telecom regulators, Nova said. "When you look at the government approval, the content relationships, the
management team, and the growth and acceptance by the Chinese community, one
could conclude that they're in a pole position to capture the Web TV market,"
Nova said. Nova expects UUSee to have revenue of at least US$10 million this year, and to become profitable on a quarterly basis by the end of the year. (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates) |
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