With New Web Series, Youku and P&G Target a New Generation of Chinese Consumers

BEIJING, Dec. 17, 2010 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- With the airing of the last episode of the web serial "Crest Pro-Health II" today, Chinese video site Youku will bring to a close its most recent joint effort with P&G. The twelve-episode series, which began airing weekly episodes online in October, has won over audiences with its blend of humor and drama, averaging more than 2.2 million viewers per episode.

China's largest video site, Youku has an audience of viewers who are mainly young, internet-savvy professionals between the ages of 18 and 40 -- precisely the demographic P&G hoped to reach through its online marketing campaigns. The two companies first came together in 2008 to work on viral Pringles ads that took off with online viewers. "Crest Pro-Health II" is the latest of several recent partnerships between Youku and P&G on next-generation media programming: other recent efforts included the popular Pantene "Healthy Hair Academy" (Jiankang Nuren Fa Xueyuan), which showcased beauty tips from celebrities like supermodel Lin Chi-ling, and cross-promotions between the Youku-produced "Head and Shoulders Shili Stage" web competition and the wildly popular TV show "China's Got Talent" that pitted homegrown Internet celebrities against show contestants for a chance to join Taiwanese signing sensation Jolin Tsai's world tour.

Online video is an increasingly important complement to television in China's media market -- especially among the young people who make up P&G's core demographic. In order to better connect with this audience, P&G wanted to move beyond traditional television advertising techniques to produce rich media designed from the very beginning with a new generation of viewers in mind. With its reach, viewership, and in-house production capabilities, Youku was P&G's obvious choice. Over the past two years, the company has grown from making viral videos to producing high-quality, rich programming for partners like P&G.

Since it first began producing longer-form content in November 2008 with the web series "Hip-Hop Office Quartet," Youku has seen its self-produced programming enjoy a high degree of popularity with viewers. In September 2010, a study by iResearch found that Youku has a 40% share of total user time spent viewing online videos among Chinese internet users, thus making Youku China's third largest website.  

P&G has become one of Youku's most important and fastest-growing partners over the past year and a half.

About Youku

Youku (www.youku.com) is China's leading Internet television company. Our mission is to become the primary video content provider for Chinese internet users across all Internet-enabled devices. We offer a combination of licensed professional content, user-generated content and self-produced web content by Youku Originals. Since launching in December 2006, Youku has grown to become China's third-largest website in terms of user time spent. According to research firm iResearch, Youku attracts approximately 203 million monthly unique visitors from homes and offices and 61 million monthly unique visitors from Internet cafes, and has a 40% share of total user time spent viewing online videos among Chinese internet users.