December 28, 2006 at 10:01 Google invests in Chinese P2P
For the first time, rumors about Google ’s investment in China’s Xunlei peer-to-peer network appeared three weeks ago .
Xunlei (the full name of Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd.) is a Chinese counterpart to BitTorrent and Kazaa, a very promising startup. The program of the same name (its name translates as "Thunder") was downloaded from 75 million to 100 million Chinese, and now about 140 thousand files are transmitted on the Thunder network.
The startup has already passed the first round of investments, in which the venture funds Morningside and IDG Ventures participated . The second round of investments is being prepared with the participation of the Ceyuan Ventures fund. Three weeks ago, rumors appeared that Google also wants to participate in this round, which provides for an investment of about $ 100 million.
Yesterday, these rumors were confirmed .
Like its western counterparts, the Chinese Xunlei program has come a long way from a conventional file download system to a commercial distribution network of licensed content.
Xunlei’s business model is to license content from copyright holders and distribute it through a P2P network with small commercials attached to each file. Moreover, in the near future it is planned to release client software for mobile phones, so that the base of viewers will expand further.
In China, this business may be even more successful than in the West. Firstly, the subscriber base will soon become larger than in any western country (in June it was 123 million). Secondly, the Chinese are more actively using the Network for entertainment than Europeans and Americans, so they prefer downloading videos from the Internet. Thirdly, mobile communication technologies are developing more rapidly in the Asian market, and this is very important for entertainment content.
Xunlei (the full name of Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd.) is a Chinese counterpart to BitTorrent and Kazaa, a very promising startup. The program of the same name (its name translates as "Thunder") was downloaded from 75 million to 100 million Chinese, and now about 140 thousand files are transmitted on the Thunder network.
The startup has already passed the first round of investments, in which the venture funds Morningside and IDG Ventures participated . The second round of investments is being prepared with the participation of the Ceyuan Ventures fund. Three weeks ago, rumors appeared that Google also wants to participate in this round, which provides for an investment of about $ 100 million.
Yesterday, these rumors were confirmed .
Like its western counterparts, the Chinese Xunlei program has come a long way from a conventional file download system to a commercial distribution network of licensed content.
Xunlei’s business model is to license content from copyright holders and distribute it through a P2P network with small commercials attached to each file. Moreover, in the near future it is planned to release client software for mobile phones, so that the base of viewers will expand further.
In China, this business may be even more successful than in the West. Firstly, the subscriber base will soon become larger than in any western country (in June it was 123 million). Secondly, the Chinese are more actively using the Network for entertainment than Europeans and Americans, so they prefer downloading videos from the Internet. Thirdly, mobile communication technologies are developing more rapidly in the Asian market, and this is very important for entertainment content.