Will China’s Popular Video Platform Compete With YouTube in the U.S.?

Youku and Tudou, China’s top two online video platforms, recently joined forces in a bid to end a destructively competitive relationship and settle legal issues. The new company, Youku Tudou (NYSE:YOKU), now claims a market cap of just over $2 billion. They cover nearly 80 percent of online video users in China.

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ZDNet reports that Youku Tudou CEO Victor Koo said, “At this point in time, especially throughout the integration [of Youku and Tudou], the Chinese market will still be our primary focus but going forward we may look at other countries as well.” This could mean the United States starts seeing video platform competition, while Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube remains blocked in China. Licensing issues are likely to keep Youku Tudou at home for the time being, though.

“Similar to Hulu, a lot of traditional media companies’ content, especially those from international companies, are geo-blocked. So there is still a combination of programs that are not available to overseas users,” said Koo.

The United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority began looking into high-level executives at the company over concerns of insider trading. There were “suspicious spikes” in Tudou trades before the announcement of the merger.

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