BEIJING, March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku (NYSE:
YOKU), China's leading Internet
television company, announced today that it will launch an animated
web serial, Miss Puff, this
April. The new series is the company's most ambitious web serial to
date, with 104 seven-minute episodes planned over eight
seasons.
Miss Puff is a natural
continuation of the original feature Miss Puff's Goldfish Bowl, an
animated short that premiered last November as one of the films in
Youku's 11 Degrees New Media Film Project, a partnership between
Youku, Chevrolet Cruze, and the China Film Group. The trailer for
the upcoming series has been viewed more than 220,000 times over
the past week, suggesting that it will share the popularity of the
original film, which was viewed more than five million times and
linked in roughly two million tweets, making it the most-tweeted of
the 11 Degrees films.
Positioned as a Chinese Sex and the City, Miss Puff will have weekly dates with
Youku's 280 million online viewers. Each episode will revolve
around an object in the titular material girl's everyday life,
offering Miss Puff a chance to
contemplate the vicissitudes of fast-paced Chinese urban life and
presenting a product placement opportunity for advertisers like GM
and Lenovo.
Created by Beijing-based
independent animator Pi San, Miss
Puff explores the social mores of young white-collar
professionals through the persona of its title character, a
doe-eyed young Beijing freelancer
who bears more than a passing resemblance to French actress Audrey
Tautou and Chinese songstress Faye
Wong. Like the original film, the new animations blend
animated characters with live-action backgrounds, bringing a level
of realism to the animation. With the incorporation of viewer
feedback in the series' plot arcs, Miss
Puff will engage viewers with storylines that they can
relate to.
Youku is no stranger to creating online series, having premiered
China's first web serial,
Hip-Hop Office Quartet, in 2008. After three seasons, the
show passed 100 million views last August.
Miss Puff is being
produced by Youku Original, Youku's in-house content production
department. Youku Original is a key part of the company's content
strategy, which pursues a combination of licensed professionally
produced content, self-produced content from Youku Original, and
user-uploaded content. With Miss
Puff, Youku Original will continue to blend engaging
content, social relevance, and cutting-edge marketing to create a
series that will engage and delight the viewers advertisers want to
reach.
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".
Contact
Information:
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Jean Shao
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Sr. Manager of
International Communications
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Youku.com Inc.
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Tel: +86-10-5885-1881
x7128
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Email: shaodan@youku.com
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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: +86-10-5885-1881
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: +31-6-5462-4301
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Email: caroline.straathof@irinside.com
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SOURCE Youku.com Inc.