SubscribeChinese Video Services Allowed to Work Arounds the Restricts
The online video regulations co-issued by SARFT and MII, which requires all online video service operated by state owned companies, has officially in effect since Jan 31st already. As we expected, the services of Chinese video sharing websites, all run by private companies, haven’t affected by the new regulations so far.
There were rumors in the market which may turn the bad news of online video regulation into sort of good news for existing video sharing websites. Today, the rumors came true. In today’s press conference, the spokesperson from SARFT and MII said that online video services established before the issue of new regulation are allowed to apply for the necessary license to run business. It means the regulations do not apply to them, while new comers should be state-owned companies.
It, in fact, protects the existing players in the market by effectively setting up high entry barriers for private new comers. The Chinese Youtube wannabes suddenly can benefit from the regulation rather than being affected by it.
However, when I talked with some people in the industry, they think the future for video websites will still be hard, even though they can survive the new regulations. The regulators will continue to tighten the content control on these website. Anyway, it is a good news for Chinese video websites, we are eager to see who will be the first one to get the license.
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[...] Tangos wrote an interesting post today on Chinese Video Services Allowed to Work Arounds the RestrictsHere’s a quick excerptThe Chinese Youtube wannabes suddenly can benefit from the regulation rather than being affected by it. However, when I talked with some people in the industry, they think the future for video websites will still be hard, … [...]
[...] Geeks of Doom wrote an interesting post today on Comment on Chinese Video Services Allowed to Work Arounds the…Here’s a quick excerpt…an interesting post today on Chinese Video Services Allowed to Work Arounds the RestrictsHere’s a quick excerptThe Chinese Youtube wannabes… [...]
Regulators are once more storming shortly behind venture capitalists and far ahead of a viable revenue model for the industry.
China can’t monetize web services around Adsense, making most of the VC effort doomed. The major sites are still running their own advertising in-house. This leaves the only player with the ability to create an ecology to handle online payments as Tencent, which seems to be occupied elsewhere.
I don’t see how these sites will survive, licensed or not.
Once again, the government moves in late and offers favor to the already established companies. Just shows that it pays to move in early, even if the regulations are unclear.
I wrote about this in the article:http://www.chinavortex.com/2008/02/working-the-gray-areas-in-china
[...] 看起来大家都可以放轻松些了。国家广电总局已经在新的互联网法规上作出了一些澄清。China Web 2.0 Review的Tangos在早先的一篇博客中提供了一个来自广电总局新闻发布会的稿子，里面很多都是一些官话，一些都是爷爷辈的语句了。据悉，已经在运营的公司将被允许申请执照，处罚真的是相当的轻，而且没有引起多少人的关注。我确实听说一些谣言，说偶偶已经退出视频分享的前三甲了，并且 酷6现在也成现无人看守状。（任何确认和批驳此谣言的留言，我都欢迎）。Tangos也相信，至少有一家这些视频分享网站已经在庆祝，这意味着新的视频分享网站踏入市场变得困难重重，而IDC和带宽的涨价足够令人头疼了。 [...]
[...] This past winter, the Chinese government introduced new regulations that require any new video site to have a license showing that it is majority-owned by a government-controlled business. A grandfather clause in the regulations, as China Web 2.0 Review reported, appeared to have made these three sites exempt from that rule. It is my understanding, from talking to these companies, that not one has actually obtained any sort of operating license, in any case. [...]
[...] The new regulation by SARFT, which became effective since Jan 31st, requires all video sharing site to have a license to operate video business in China. 56.com has not obtained such license so far, nor did Tudou.com and Youku.com. Some of the VC-backed video companies who have obtained the license include 100du.com, Ku6.com, 6.cn, and P2P video service UUSee.com. [...]