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56.com
It doesn't look like it right now, but 56.com is China's third largest video host. For three weeks now, the home page has shown only this notice that it's offline for server upgrades. Right. |
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), the official regulatory body (some say the censor) of traditional audio-visual media, has been booking remarkable successes in curtailing that country's tremendously popular video hosts.
Watching and making videos has quickly become a true mass medium in China. According to official figures, 160 million Chinese net users actively make or watch videos, out of 250 million net users total there. Also, these users have been skipping other tools -- like podcasts, which have never taken off in China.
The larger video hosts -- all privately owned and often heavily funded by foreign venture capitalists -- implemented their own self-vetting systems to avoid confrontations with the censor. Smaller video hosts have been less rigorous and featured both porn and heated online discussions to increase market share. But since this struggle is more about power than about content or principles, SARFT has been looking for way to take on the larger players.
Initially, SARFT was rather unsuccessful in gaining power over this online mass medium. It issued regulation after regulation, but these were virtually ignored. Still, for the censor (just like for media organizations), gaining control over the booming online sector is a matter of life and death.
Consequently, SARFT has been developing a new strategy. Three weeks ago it took the third largest Chinese video host, Guangzhou-based 56.com, offline -- and it remains offline as of this writing. Earlier SARFT tried to do the same with the largest video host, Tudou.com, but could not get away with it. But when the government went after 56,com, China was still preoccupied with the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, so protests against its closure did not help. 56.com's home page currently says the service is down to upgrading its servers -- but after almost three weeks that excuse is obviously not credible.
At the end of last week SARFT made a new move, issuing 247 licenses for video hosting services -- except for the top three (Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com).
Chinese Internet watcher Danwei concludes: "SARFT may just let these sites run dry and expire. Or perhaps they will reach an accommodation soon enough to make sure some of the money, technology and know-how invested in Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com remains for the good of Chinese netizens, and for the Chinese government's own nation-building purposes.
