Yinyuetai Raises $35 Million In Funding | Online Chinese Music Video Platform

The funding would be used to build a fan club platform and optimize its music fan service system

Beijing-based Kuanke Network Technology, operator of online music and music video website Yinyuetai, announced the raising of US$35 million funding at an industry summit on April 10th. The funding would be used to build a fan club platform and optimize its music fan service system.
According to Yinyuetai's publicly available data, it currently has more than 800,000 high-definition music videos, of which over 90% debuted on its platform. It attracts an average of 5 million users daily, while its app has been downloaded 25 million times. Its video clickthrough volume is 10 times that of Chinese online video site operator Youku Tudou, often compared to YouTube. Fans of Korean and Japanese pop music are the most active users on the platform.
Launched in July 2009 by CEO Dou Zhang, one of the founders of Alibaba, Yinyuetai is the only video portal focused exclusively on musical recordings. Aside from standard music videos, the number of "Fanpai" videos (self-recorded videos by fans) has grown to over 200,000, while the number of "Fantuan" (fan groups) reached over 6,000.
Not hard to see, fans are willing to participate into the process of idol production. In December 2013, Yinyuetai expanded its product offering with online shopping mall selling CDs and related products as well as holding offline events such as album autograph sessions. Also, making the "Yinyue Super Guests" and some other singer interview shows to complete the brand chain.
Its most powerful fan groups are dedicated to Japanese and Korean singers, with huge amount of news, MV, and related products dedicated to them. The Japanese and Korean music industries being the most developed, they were the first to focus on the "fan economy". For instance, an 'idol' label may issue ten different covers for a single album, with superfans often buying all ten covers. Add to that merchandise ranging from desk calendars to picture books, postcards, notebooks,... Now, the trend is starting to take hold in China.
At the forum. Dou Zhang, the CEO of Yinyuetai, said that the consumers of the entertainment industry are generally "fanalized", and within the coming 10-15 years, Internet and music will be overtaken and restructured in production, consumption, and publicity. In the future, "selling music" will turn to "selling idols", with fans willing to pay for the emotional connection as opposed to just the recorded music.
 - Read the full story at UnRatedMagazine.com