A8.com is an online digital music website that started in 2000 in China.  The company is planning to have an IPO on the Hongkong Exchange under HK:0800.  A8 hopes to raise around HKD 217 million ($27.82 million) through the IPO. 

Previous investors in A8 include JAFCO, Intel Capital, TDF Group, IDGVC.  A8 sells ringtones, ringback tones, and IVR music for mobile phone subscribers through China Mobile and China Unicom.  Music on A8 is available through local music labels and user-generated music uploaded by the artists.

Over 50,000 songs have been uploaded to A8.com so far.  The 10,000 artists that have contributed music on A8 receive roughly 15-50% of the revenue generated from their music.  A8’s revenue in 2007 was 286 million yuan ($41.22) and profit was 55 million yuan ($7.92 million).

Information Source:
[1] China Web2.0 Review: Chinese Digital Music Service A8 To Go Public in HongKong

Meebo, the online chat application that is powered by AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber has raised a Series C round of investment at $25 million. JAFCO Ventures was the lead investor. Other investors include Time Warner, KTB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Meebo was started in September 2005 and is currently valuated at $200 million.

Meebo is a top 400 site within Alexa.  The online instant message company plans to utilize their partnership through Time Warner by working with its subsidiaries such as AOL, TMZ, New Line Cinema, People Magazine, and CNN.

Meebo will be expanding to Japan and Korea with this round of funding.  Meebo also has partnerships with VideoEgg, CBS, PUMA, and 4 record labels.  Meebo started in September 2005 and has over 29 million users sending over 150 million IMs daily.

The actual name of the company was written on a napkin by the three co-founders.   What is the deal with  coming up with business plans and Internet company names on napkins?

Tudou is the largest video sharing network in China.  The company has recently raised $57 million in Series D.  Tudou has rasied $85 million in total.  With the funding, Tudou is able to power the H.264 high definition videos spread across their site.  Tudous receives 100 million video clip views and 10 million unique hits every day.

Previous Tudou investors were involved with this additional round of funding.  Tudou’s investors are IDG Technology Venture Investment, Granite Global Ventures, Capital Today, General Catalyst Partners, KTB Ventues and JAFCO Asia.  Family and venture funds came in from the U.S. and Singapore as well.  Tudou will soon be having the their first Film Festival.

Tudou generates a lot of traffic from AllUc.org, a site that links to full length movies, cartoons, and music videos.  The company is now valuated at $150 million.