This month, a rumor started spreading that Google China and Ceyuan Venture is preparing to invest into P2P software and file sharing network, Xunlei. The investment announcement is expected to take place on January 5. Google China would invest $5 million and Ceyuan Venture would invest $15 million.
Xunlei was created in 2003 and is known for being a download accelerator for videos and software. Fortune China ranked Xunlei as one of the coolest companies of 2005. IDGVC invested $1 million into Xunlei and then a second round $10 million funding was invested into the company by Morningside and IDGVC. Xunlei’s software was downloaded over 110 million times and averages about 1.5 million downloads per day.
Google China is interested in Xunlei because it is the second most popular desktop website in China. If Google China invested in Xunlei and placed Google Toolbar as part of the installation, it would help Google penetrate a larger market share of Internet users in China. And also Xunlei is a video-centric web company and since Google acquired YouTube, it proves Google is ready to believe that Internet video is the way of the future. It would work out perfectly.
