Short movies to make TV debut overseas (2)

Announcement of the deal preceded a four-day trade fair in short movies at the venue for the ninth China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair.

Hu Liangming, general manager of Shenzhen Times Network Media, said he hopes the international deal can stimulate domestic transactions for Chinese shorts, which are still struggling to generate revenue.

In Western countries, short movies reach audiences through multiple distribution channels, including electronic sales on iTunes and Amazon, theater screenings, pay-TV channels and video on demand subscription. In China, people watch shorts online and free of charge in most cases.

Zhu Xiangyang, chief content officer of Youku.com, which has the biggest share of the country's online video market, said, "Chinese people still think that they don't need to pay for information on the Internet." Zhu highlighted this root cause of Chinese new-media shorts' financial plight at a forum on Tuesday in Shenzhen, which formed part of the China International (KingBonn) New Media Shorts Festival.



Chen Yan, secretary-general of the Shenzhen Copyright Society, said that to enhance copyright protection the society has launched two platforms for copyright owners to have their ownership registered. This costs only 10 yuan ($1.60).

Merger wave

Zhu from Youku.com said while the production and broadcasting of short movies are separated in Western countries, in China a trend has emerged for a video website to take on both roles.

A wave of mergers and acquisitions has swept video websites in China since last year, including the merger of Youku.com and Tudou.com and Baidu's purchase of the video section of Pps.tv to merge it with Iqiyi.com, Baidu's video brand, on May 7.

"These new website giants need to differentiate their affiliated brands," Zhu said.

However, even a platform as large as Youku.com has found it difficult to attract investment for the production of short movies.

Zhu said Youku.com makes little profit from producing shorts or promoting users' shorts. He doesn't think it is realistic to rely on new media to invest in its self-made shorts in the long term.