Tudou to be more youthful, Youku more general in post-merger differentiation campaign

Tudou unveiled a revamped site design and introduced new social features and original programming in the first major campaign following the merger on 23 August.

The campaign highlights the youthful, fashion-forward nature of the Tudou brand. A larger, sleeker video player is front and center in Tudou's new layout, while a new discussion feature called "Doupao" makes it easier for viewers to discuss videos in real time.

"The Chinese online video industry has been characterised by fierce competition for the past several years," pointed out Youku Tudou Chairman, CEO Victor Koo. "Now that Youku and Tudou are no longer competing with one another, it's time to let both sites be themselves. Tudou's new design and identity position it to appeal to younger, more independent audiences than the more general audience served by Youku."

Youku.com and Tudou.com will be developed as separate, distinct platforms sharing a unified advertising client support system. The system "enhances advertisers' potential marketing coverage while eliminating unnecessary duplicate reach, for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in ad buys", Koo said in a teleconference.

Youku and Tudou have a combined reach of about 310 million unique viewers per week, with 14 per cent of daily overlap and 18 per cent weekly overlap. A report from Chinese market-research firm iResearch estimated that Youku Tudou broadcasts a total of 1.6 billion hours of video every month.

"Tudou's new Doupao feature makes video-watching a social activity again," Koo said. "Pop-up bubbles on top of videos display real-time feeds of comments, rather than shunting comments to the bottom of the video page, or sending users to microblogging services for discussion."

Three new channels of Tudou-specific content—Tudou Original, Entertainment, and Animation—were also announced.

The company's president Liu Dele said that mobile is a key area for growth, as mobile-based visits account for 15 per cent of Youku.com’s traffic. Koo continued that Youku Tudou has been well-positioned for multi-screen viewing experiences, citing Youku’s iOS app as a good way to sync videos one began watching on a smartphone or tablet and then finish watching them on a PC.