BEIJING and SHANGHAI, December 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 1,200 advertising partners and related representatives attended the 2013 Youku Tudou Resources events in Shanghai on December 5 and Beijing on November 28. The two events, hosted by Youku Tudou Inc. (NYSE: YOKU; formerly Youku Inc. or "Youku"), China's leading Internet television company, offered prospective advertising partners an opportunity to better understand Youku Tudou's dual-platform offerings, which are quickly becoming a favorite option for advertisers, in advance of their 2013 advertising budget allocations.
The better-than-expected turnout for the Shanghai and Beijing Youku Tudou Resources events reflected a growing interest among advertisers in the company's dual-platform advertising solution. To date, more than 20 major advertisers, including such major brands as Yum Foods, General Mills, Shanghai GM Buick, and TMall, have made adjustments to their 2012 advertising budgets in order to take advantage of the service. For the television drama Chu Han, which will debut online in late December, nearly all of the major advertisers have opted for dual-platform ads.
Since completing the merger of Youku and Tudou, China's two largest online video platforms, in August 2012, Youku Tudou has been able to realize economies of scale in a number of areas -- and to extend the resulting benefits to its partners. Youku Tudou's dual-platform solution allows advertisers to reach a vast, diverse user base -- with a combined total of more than 400 million viewers on a monthly basis according to market research firm iResearch in September 2012 -- accounting for nearly 80% of China's online video audience. Fine-grained backend controls allow advertisers to target their ads by video platform, user location, and other criteria, and to track ad performance among different viewer demographics.
In addition to expanding advertising clients' reach, Youku Tudou's dual-platform strategy allows clients to lower costs and reduce duplicate reach. Third-party monitoring figures from AdMonitor for a Yum Foods KFC campaign in late August and early September showed a roughly 7% decrease in ad costs for the company. Yum was one of the first advertisers to experiment with dual-platform advertising through Youku Tudou. Following the success of the campaign, Yum Foods subsequently expanded its dual-platform ad placements to cover all of its brands in Q4 2012.
"We're gratified to see more and more advertising partners taking advantage of the unique characteristics of Youku Tudou's offerings," said Youku Tudou president Dele Liu. "Our platforms have a history of strong relationships with advertisers founded upon strong ad performance, and the integration between Youku and Tudou's platforms allows Youku Tudou to offer our partners access to an unprecedented audience, combined with the most advanced metrics and monitoring system in China's online advertising industry."
Youku and Tudou, China's #1 and #2 online video companies, officially merged into Youku Tudou Inc. in August 2012. Youku Tudou has continued to operate the parallel platforms Youku.com and Tudou.com as independent websites with distinct brand identities. Youku.com targets a mainstream, professional audience, while Tudou.com is positioned to appeal to a young fashion-conscious viewership.
About Youku Tudou Inc.
Youku Tudou Inc. (NYSE: YOKU) is China's leading Internet television company. Its 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 Tudou's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of Youku Tudou's Class A ordinary shares, are traded on the NYSE under the symbol "YOKU".
Contact:
Jean Shao, Director of International Communications
T: (8610) 58851881-7128
