Chinese Internet video website Tudou.com will invest about CNY10 million to establish a new fund to support the development of original videos and online media.
The company revealed the news during the opening of its video festival, which will hold its final competition in June this year. This is reportedly Tudou.com's sixth video festival since 2008 and it is also the first after the merger of Tudou.com and Youku.com.
Gu Yongqiang, chairman and chief executive officer of Youku-Tudou Group, said during the opening ceremony that they will continue to encourage the original spirit of Tudou.com and make this video festival a great success.
Yu Zhou, chief strategy officer of Tudou.com, said that with the support of Youku.com, Tudou.com's video festival will gain more advantages in work recruitment and promotions. In addition, Yu introduced Tudou.com's new funding project. He said the fund will focus on micro-movies, Internet dramas, and animation; and it will provide comprehensive support, covering capital, promotion, technology, consulting, and production equipment to selected projects.
At present, Tudou.com's video festival has started work recruitment. Over the following six months, a total of 15 awards will be selected after online voting, works screening, and judges voting. The final results will be disclosed in June 2013.