Comparison Between YouTube and Youku

Introduction

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos. The company is mainly an American company based in San Bruno, California. It hosts a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media video content, including video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. So Youtube is owned by Google Inc.

While, Youku is the chinese version of Youtube, also a video sharing website doing business since 2003. It is a Chinese video hosting service based in Mainland China. Youku has its headquarters on the fifth floor of Sinosteel Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing. On March 12, 2012, Youku reached an agreement to acquire Tudou in a stock-for-stock transaction, the new entity being named Youku Tudou Inc. So Youku is owned by Youku Tudou Inc.

Differences

1. Youtube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim; all Americans while Youku was founded by Victor Koo; Chinese guy
2. Youtube was launched in 2005 while Youku was launched in 2003.
3. Youtube as of 2011 had approximately 1200 employees, I don't know how many employees they currently have, I would find out and keep you guys updated. while Youku has 2,104 employees currently.
4. Youtube has 1.2 billion views per day while Youku has 150 million views per day.
5. Youtube does not allow for video downloads except for few specially selected videos. Youku allows for unlimited video downloads. You can virtually download any video from Youku. 
6. Youtube has its platform in english and has a wide selection of languages while Youku has it's platform in chinese and also offers a wide selection of languages.

Now lets take a look at the similarities between YouTube and Youku.

Similarities

1. They are both video sharing websites.
2. They both own their own TOS.
3. They both have a large audience. YouTube coming in first place while Youku is closing in from behind.
4. They both censor certain videos. Yes, for those of you that think YouTube doesn't censor, think again. YouTube does censorship as well as Youku.
5. They both support multilingual platforms i.e they support multiple languages. Youku is fast catching up in this area.
6. Youtube and Youku both support Ad revenue sharing which is a very good thing, Youku just lauched its Ad revenue sharing services in December 2013 and is quickly catching up with youtube.
7. And finally, they both support multiple input file formats.

I would wrap up this blog by adding my own personal opinion....If you log on to YouTube, it is all written in English whereas its counterpart Youku is all written in Chinese. YouTube being in English gives it a great advantage over Youku internationally. This is because, many international users like me communicate in English and I am sure many users are wary of having to constantly translate the website from Chinese to English just to watch a video or even upload one. I visit Youku once in a while to upload videos and also watch videos and, I can assure you, its a pain in the ass to see everything written in Chinese and having to constantly translate it to English.  That being said, this is just my own personal opinion.

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