Youku to Recruit 200 Amatuer Filmmakers to Generate Exclusive, Unique Content

Chinese online video sharing site Youku.com plans to recruit 200 amateur video makers from across the country to generate exclusive content for the site, a senior official with Youku.com told Interfax on Dec. 17.

Gu Yongqiang, Youku’s founder and CEO, said that the company will recruit 10 local video makers, known as “pai ke” in Chinese, from each of 20 locations across the country by the end of the year. The first group of pai ke is already being established in Shanghai.

In return for generating video content under Youku’s direction, pai ke will be paid, depending on how popular their videos become once uploaded to Youku.com.

“A pai ke whose video reaches the top spot on the front page will be paid RMB 1,000 ($146.38), while those achieving other spots on the front page will be paid RMB 300 ($43.90). Videos at the top of other pages will gain RMB 200 ($29.27) for their authors,” Gu said.

Gu also revealed that news and entertainment content will be Youku’s main areas of focus in 2009.  I wonder if we will start to see other major video sharing sites try this out as a way to generate more professional  content which we know tends to monetize much greater.

About the Author - Mark R Robertson
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com. Mark has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Local Search, Video Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can follow Mark on Twitter @markrrobertson

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