Video websites see new opportunity in 3G mobile

By Zhao Qian

Many major video websites have begun to take advantage of the opportunities the 3G market may provide as more users are going online with their mobile phones.

Tudou.com, one of the most popular websites in the country, started formally working with China Mobile over the weekend to allow mobile users to view the video site on their phones.

When the service launches in November, users will only have to pay a flat fee to have unlimited viewing privileges.

"At present, users have to upload videos through their personal computers, and some of the videos can be offered on cell phones," Wang Wei, CEO of tudou.com, told the Global Times Monday.

"And we hope in the future that all users will be able to upload their videos directly onto the channel through their phones," he added.

"We see big commercial opportunities in the 3G mobile market and are exploring more ways to increase our market share," he said.

The number of the country's mobile users broke the 600 million mark in July, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In the middle of October, tudou.com launched its first video widget software for Nokia mobiles, which requires users to download and set it up on their phones by themselves.

"We are also negotiating with some mobile producers to set up built-in software on the phones before they go to market," Wang added.

Youku.com, another well-known video website, has already teamed up with Nokia and Sony Ericsson to set up their video software on 3G cell phones before they are released.

"This is more convenient for the users because they don't need to set up the video software by themselves," Yao Jian, chief technology officer of youku.com, told the Global Times, "and the built-in software could make watching videos on phones easier."

But Yao admitted that offering video services on mobile phones is much more complicated than on the Internet because of differing technology and equipment.

Currently, youku is offering their mobile video services for free. "We just want to attract more users," Yao explained.

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