Online Video Services Allowed to Work Arounds the Restricts in China

New York Times reported on “China Steps Up Internet Video Control“.

The online video regulations co-issued by SARFT and MII, which requires all online video service operated by state owned companies, has officially in effect since Jan 31st already. As we expected, the services of Chinese video sharing websites, all run by private companies, haven’t affected by the new regulations so far.

According to Tangos,

There were rumors in the market which may turn the bad news of online video regulation into sort of good news for existing video sharing websites. Today, the rumors came true. In today’s press conference, the spokesperson from SARFT and MII said that online video services established before the issue of new regulation are allowed to apply for the necessary license to run business. It means the regulations do not apply to them, while new comers should be state-owned companies.

It, in fact, protects the existing players in the market by effectively setting up high entry barriers for private new comers. The Chinese Youtube wannabes suddenly can benefit from the regulation rather than being affected by it.

However, when I talked with some people in the industry, they think the future for video websites will still be hard, even though they can survive the new regulations. The regulators will continue to tighten the content control on these website. Anyway, it is a good news for Chinese video websites, we are eager to see who will be the first one to get the license.

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