Four executives of online video service Qvod who are on trial for spreading pornography for profits and who had pled innocent in a previous trial, changed their pleas to guilty on Friday in a new open trial in Beijing.
Wang Xin, former CEO of Shenzhen-based Qvod Technology Co. Ltd. and three other executives, all admitted to spreading pornography on the Internet, Beijing's Haidian District People's Court heard.
The company was charged with spreading a large amount of pornography and pirated content on its popular video player since the end of 2012 and by doing so had also made huge profits through charging users and advertisers.
According to Haidian District People's Procuratorate, 21,251 of 29,841 files that police obtained from three servers used by Qvod were pornographic
During the first trial, on January 7-8, the defendants denied all the charges.
In Friday's trial, the procuratorate alleged that the large amount of obscene content had increased Qvod's users, and its profits.
In 2013, the company's business division posted revenue exceeding 140 million yuan (21 million U.S. dollars), according to the procuratorate.
"Our company's revenue is based on user numbers," admitted defendant Zhang Kedong.
Founded in 2007, Qvod is a peer-to-peer video streaming site and it has around 300 million users.
"Faced with the choice between social responsibility and company interests, I chose the the latter, " said Wang. He showed remorse for his actions.
"Spreading obscene content on the Internet did harm to others,especially adolescents. Not only have I broken the law, but I have also neglected my duty," said Wang.
The court will announce the verdicts at a later date.
