(Ecns.cn)--Having developed for almost two years in China, Internet TV shows that are independently produced by Chinese video-sharing websites have become popular, especially among young web users. These websites have gradually begun to carve out a new field in the Internet world.
Three months ago, Youku.com, a famous Chinese video-sharing website, launched their own talent show that could be viewed exclusively online. The show has 12 episodes altogether and viewers can watch 24 participants singing, dancing, playing instruments, and doing other talent show activities on the episodes. In the end, two of the participants won the prize rewarded by Youku.
All these episodes were broadcast on the Internet platform of Youku, and the click rate exceeded over 60 million. The success of this show became a new avenue for industry insiders to explore in order to gain more viewers and increase click rates.
"Online variety shows are actually a derivative of the development of Internet TV series," said Wei Ming, a senior official with Youku. "If developed properly, this kind of programming will bring video-sharing websites a bright future and fame."
A growing trend
For a long period of time, video-sharing websites only provided programs they bought from TV stations and TV series they acquired from producers; but the feedback was not positive. "We used to be trapped in a passive situation where we could only broadcast programs that have already appeared on TV," said an industry insider.
Almost every website launched the same programs, which made it harder for each of them to survive. But self-made online series gave hopes to these websites. "Only by producing our own programs can we survive and make progress," said another insider whose idea has been accepted by almost the whole industry.
After Youku's self-made talent show, another video-sharing website Qiyi. Com also launched a self-made variety show on the topic of health, inviting a famous Chinese host and hostess to attract larger audiences.
The website cooperated with a professional variety show production team for their programs, aiming to produce unique and high quality shows for its viewers. "We hired employees who have work experience in large websites and traditional TV stations to guarantee the quality of our program," said Gao Jin, a senior official at Qiyi.
Besides this health program, Qiyi also plans to launch other types of variety shows, like dating and entertainment shows. According to the senior official, the website will launch two new programs by the end of this year.
Another website, Ku6.com, also joined this group to launch its own variety show and similar to Qiyi, the website also created a special department focused on making variety shows. The team, consisting of 40 people and has directors, producers, writers, and media planners.
Self-made series and variety shows are currently two tools for the development of video-sharing websites. More and more websites are recruiting talented and experienced workers in a bid to devote themselves to this new type of programming.
