There is speculation that the Chinese government is starting to crack down on what they see as unofficial media. We’ll have to see how this develops as the Olympics starts up. My guess is that we’ll see even more restrictions on Chinese media.
For the past year, three sites–Tudou, Youku and 56.com–have been battling to become the “YouTube of China,” soaking up nearly $200 million in venture capital funding along the way.
Now, there appear to be just two: 56.com, a site that raised $30 million and recently announced a partnership with the National Basketball Association, shut down without explanation on June 3. A message in Mandarin says the site is undergoing an unspecified server upgrade. The company hasn’t issued a statement on the outage, and its’ executives and investors have been strangely silent. Speculation, of course, is that the site has been shut down by the Chinese government.
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