After nearly six weeks of downtime, popular Chinese video-sharing site 56.com comes back online
On June 3rd, the third-largest Chinese video site, 56.com went offline. The official reason: Technical problems. But widespread reports concluded the cause was governmental censorship. Now, the site, whose name sounds like the words “I’m happy” in Chinese, is back online.
56.com has received funding from a range of Western investors, including Silicon Valley venture firms Sequoia Capital, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures and Intel Capital, along with private equity firms
The company had reportedly failed to heed prior… Continue Reading
Chinese video site 56.com still offline while censorship rumors continue to grow
We’ve been covering the ongoing downtime experienced by third-place Chinese online video site 56.com, a company that has received significant backing from Silicon Valley investors. While the site claims technical problems are causing the downtime, the consensus is that the Chinese government has chosen to censor the site entirely off the web, at least for now.
More rumors are still coming out, courtesy of journalist turned Ogilvy China digital media strategist Kaiser Kuo, who has been… Continue Reading
As leading Chinese video sites Tudou and Youku battle on, more reasons emerge for 56.com’s downtime
56.com, the third largest online video-sharing site in China, has been offline since June 3rd. The company says the cause is “technical” problems, via the error message pictured above, but there are two other possible reasons.
The first is that the Chinese government simply shut it down to censor content on the site. That possibility has been covered by a number of prominent China bloggers, this publication and now a number of Western media outlets, and… Continue Reading
Roundup: Leading China video site still down, Apple on United, and more
It’s been more than a week, and top Chinese video site 56.com is still “down for maintenance” — This is the longest outage to happen to any of the top three Chinese video sites, all of which have received significant investment from international investors — 56.com’s include Sequoia Capital, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and we hear, Intel Capital. Chinese speakers, see 56.com’s message, above for the official explanation. The other two sites, Tudou.com and Youku.com, have also… Continue Reading
Leading Chinese video sharing web sites are having trouble staying online
Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com may be the most popular video-sharing sites in China, but within the last few months, they’ve all suffered from downtime — due to what each of these venture-backed companies have said are technical problems.
There’s another angle, though. Online videos are a great medium for sharing things like porn or political dissent, two things the Chinese government sometimes censors.
The Chinese government appears to have shut down 56.com, starting yesterday. More from Ogilvy… Continue Reading