Tag Archives: Youku
T. Rowe Price Reveals Social Media Investments: $190.5M In Facebook, $71.8M In Zynga, And $86.8M In Groupon
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) has revealed some of their investments in social media companies. They have invested a total of $190.5 million in Facebook as of the end of March. The company also invested $71.8 million in Zynga and $86.8 million in Groupon. Two years ago T. Rowe participated in a $100 million round in Twitter along with Insight Venture Partners, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley. Other investments include $10 million worth of equity in Ning, $35 million equity in Angie’s List, and $114 million equity in YouKu.com. [NYT]
Categories Angie's List, Facebook, Groupon, Ning, T. Rowe Price, Twitter, Youku, Zynga
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Dangdang.com and Youku.com Have Solid IPOs
Two Chinese Internet companies did very well on the U.S. IPO market today. Online television website Youku.com Inc (NYSE:YOKU) and Chinese e-commerce website E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (NYSE:DANG) Youku has never been profitable as of yet, but they closed at $33.44 at its close on the NYSE, up 161% from its IPO price of $12.80. Youku issued 15.8 million American Depositary Shares. Dangdang was profitable for the first time last year. Dangdang closed at $29.91 on the NYSE and they were up 86.9% from the IPO price of $16. They issued a total of 17 million American Depositary Shares that were sold at a price above their revised $13-$15 price. Youku has been compared to the Chinese version of Hulu and YouTube. Dangdang has been compared to the Chinese Amazon.com. [WSJ]
Categories Dangdang.com, Youku
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Youku Raises $40 Million, Pulls In About $29 Million This Year
Youku is a YouTube replica in China that has recently raised $40 million in additional funding. Thus far, Youku has raised $110 million in total private equity funding. Youku also has $10 million in venture debt funding and expects to bring that up to $40 million more. Youku launched in 2006 and is exploring an option to host professional content like TV shows. Youku is currently working with about 1,500 license holders.
Youku plans to launch a mobile portal using proceeds from the funding round. There are about 10 million 3G mobile phone users in China and Youku is the most visited video website in that area. Youku will make roughly 200 million yuan ($29 million) this year. To prevent copyright infringement, Youku uses digital fingerprinting technology.
Categories Youku
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Youku Raises $40 Million; Now At Over $80 Million In Total Funding
Youku.com is a popular video sharing website based in China. This website is known for hosting full movies, but has blocked certain regions from being able to play them. Youku has raised $30 million in funding from Maverick Capital, Brookside Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Farallon Capital, and Chengwei Ventures. Youku also received a $10 million loan for equipment from Western Technology Investment.
“This investment will enable us to advance the company’s rapid growth, expand our sales and marketing network, and most importantly, accelerate our monetization process as the online video market matures and consolidates in the coming year,” stated Victor Koo, President/CEO of Youku.com Inc. in a press release. ”With the new funds, we will be deepening our service to users, advertisers and media partners to give them the best and largest platform in China to distribute video content online.”
Youku receives 100 million unique visitors per month and each users spends about 300 minutes per month on the site. Youku is the #6 largest site in China in terms of the amount of time that is spent on the site.
“We are happy with Youku’s success and its progress in monetization,” stated Len Baker, Managing Director at Sutter Hill. “The Youku team has clearly demonstrated its excellent execution capability, and we believe Youku is in the right position as online video takes off on a massive scale in China.”
Youku has also recently partnered with Universal, China Film Group, Beijing TV, EMI, Huayi Music and several other media firms.Â
Youku’s last round of funding was $40 million. That investment was provided by Sutter Hill, Brookside Capital, Chengwei Ventures, and Farallon Capital.