BEIJING, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku.com Inc.
(NYSE: YOKU), China's leading
Internet television company, announced today that it has begun
offering copyright holders increased protection against copyright
infringement through upgrades to its video fingerprinting
system—the biggest upgrade since Youku launched its own copyright
identification management platform, the first to be developed by a
Chinese internet company, in January
2010.
The update to Youku's copyright identification management
platform comes on the heels of the company's agreement with major
Hollywood studios regarding
content protection. In addition to Youku's proprietary copyright
screening system, now videos uploaded to Youku will be
simultaneously checked against the VideoDNA Database (VDDB)
developed by Vobile, a leading international provider of
fingerprinting technology. The new platform provides unrivalled
accuracy, and can generate fingerprint information for videos in a
matter of minutes and compare them to existing fingerprints within
less than a second.
"Youku has acquired content rights at an unprecedented rate over
the past year," said Youku Chairman and CEO Victor Koo, "and we intend to continue working
with media content providers to make sure that we offer the richest
range of licensed video content. We are serious about maintaining
good relationships with our partners, and to that end we will
continue to offer rights-protection measures that equal or surpass
industry standards."
As a founding member of the China Network Copyright Committee,
Youku has led the way for Chinese companies in protecting content
creators' rights online. The company now continues its tradition of
respect for copyright by partnering with Vobile, whose technology
can identify copyrighted content even in cases where uploaders have
deliberately tampered with the video or audio to reduce
identifiability, thus offering a strong additional layer of
protection for studios and rights holders.
"Vobile worked with Youku to integrate its technology into the
site's existing framework," said Youku CTO Leo Jian Yao. "The seamless integration between
our systems means that Youku can check uploaded content against our
own databases in parallel with Vobile's. We will be updating our
fingerprint databases every day through our partnership with
Vobile, ensuring that our systems are up to date at all times.
Respect for intellectual property rights is every bit as important
to us as it is to our content partners, and we will continue to
develop and strengthen our copyright protection measures in the
future."
"Vobile has provided its industry-leading VDNA content
identification and management services to partners around the
world," said Vobile founder and CEO Yangbin Wang. "We're excited to
work with Youku in close partnership and help Youku ensure that it
provides licensed, high-quality TV and film content to the world's
largest Internet market."
About Youku
Youku.com Inc. is China's
leading Internet television company. Our Internet television
platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video
content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which
stands for "what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most
recognized online video brand in China. Youku's American depositary shares,
each representing 18 of our Class A ordinary shares, are traded on
NYSE under the symbol "YOKU."
About Vobile
Vobile® is the leading provider of video content identification
and management services. Its core VDNA® technology enables fully
automated identification, tracking and management of any video and
audio content with high performance, accuracy and scalability.
Vobile operates the VDNA Database (VDDB®), which is the most
comprehensive database of authorized video fingerprints, metadata
and business rules from major movie studios, television networks
and record labels. Founded in 2005, the company is headquartered in
Santa Clara, California, with
additional offices in China,
Japan and Singapore. For more information, please visit
http://www.vobileinc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These
statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S.
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such
as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends,"
"plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar
statements. Statements that are not historical facts,
including statements about Youku's beliefs and expectations,
are forward-looking statements. Among other things, quotations from
management in this announcement contain forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contained in any forward- looking statements. A number of factors
could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not
limited to the risks included in our registration statement on Form
F-1, as amended, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All information provided in this press release is
as of the date of this press release, and Youku
undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required
under applicable law.
For more information, please
contact:
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Media Relations:
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Jean Shao
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Director, International Public
Relations
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Youku.com Inc.
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Tel: (+8610) 5885-1881
x7128
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Email: shaodan@youku.com
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Investor
Relations:
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Ryan Cheung
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Corporate Finance
Director
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Youku.com Inc.
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Tel: (+8610) 5885-1881
x6090
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Email:
ryan.cheung@youku.com
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Caroline Straathof
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IR Inside
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Tel: (+31) 6-54624301
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Email:
caroline.straathof@irinside.com
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SOURCE Youku.com Inc.