Google has bought a stake in Xunlei, a popular Chinese P2P content downloading website that allows users access to film, video, music, games and ringtones, Bloomberg reports. Details are thin, and neither of the companies has yet confirmed or denied the $5 million figure, which appeared in some local Chinese reports. But the only number that really matters is the 120 million users Xunlei claims to have (and why Liu Bin, an analyst with the Beijing-based research company BDA China Ltd, quoted in the article, called the company “Google’s YouTube in China”).
The tie-up with Google will allow users to search the site’s content using Google’s search engine, and perhaps allow Google to catch up to other online search engines (the search giant is lagging behind the likes of Baidu and attracts only 16 per cent of search queries, according to reports). While much of the focus is on the online aspect of the deal, it could also impact mobile content distribution. Xunlei counts 50 million downloads of its software per day and could provide more than a platform for Google’s online search products, this article argues. Indeed, Chinese mobile operators tightly restrict the content that users can access and this P2P deal could provide an important way to get the content into the hands of users who want it
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