While your correspondent believes that traditional media companies should find constructive ways of meet the realities of new media rather than suing Youtube for copyright infringement issues as Viacom has just done, the case may have a beneficial trickle down effect for niche content producers like Danwei TV.
Danwei TV videos are hosted on Youtube and Tudou, and other similar video sharing websites. We bring those websites regular traffic and help to ensure that their users remain loyal. If Youtube and Tudou start appreciating the monetary value of content because they are forced to remove illegally-copied stuff, they will look for ways to remain the hosting sites of choice for video producers who bring them traffic.
On the other hand, as Will Moss points out on Imagethief, there seems to be a Internet video bubble developing in China. He quotes a press release from a mining company:
The company intends to participate in the fast growing video sharing web site market in China, and at the same time, to continue its exploration of mineral properties in British Columbia, Canada.
That is a sure sign of irrational exuberance. But an internet video bubble is not necessarily a bad thing either: massive overspending in China’s Internet sector in the 1990s left China with plenty of high speed connections and several media websites that managed to survive the crash and emerge as profitable companies.
In celebration of these exciting times for online video, below is Danwei TV’s most popular program. It has been watched 241,759 times on Youtube and about a million times in total if you include the figures from Tudou.com, 56.com, Yoqoo.com and other Chinese web sharing websites.
Sexy Beijing: Double Happiness