Youku.com, one of China’s leading video sharing websites, confirmed yesterday that it received last Thursday an Online Audio-visual Broadcasting License from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), the Oriental Morning Post reported Tuesday.

On June 18 SARFT released a list of 247 companies that had won online video licenses. But three of China’s top online video sharing sites – Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com, were noticeably absent from the list. According to industry insiders, the top three were excluded from the list because it’s difficult to monitor online video sharing websites and authorities need more time to finish examining large online video providers such as Tudou.com and Youku.com.

Just several days prior to the licensing approval, Youku.com announced an injection totaling US$40 million, marking the fourth round of financing since its foundation. To date, Youku.com has won more than US$80 million in capital funding. According to CEO Gu Yongqiang, US$50 million is still unused.

Tudou.com and 56.com are still waiting for SARFT’s approval, with 56.com having shut down for more than a month.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese

(http://www.dfdaily.com/node2/node27/node120/userobject1ai99795.shtml).

(China.org.cn by Yan Pei July 8, 2008)