:: a young man in Guizhou, China (Kaiyang county) has revamped / shanzhai’d an old-school Changan pick-up truck, turning it into a trick car capable of spectacular 360 degree drifting maneuvers. At the 4:21 mark, watch him manage a parallel parking stunt with a high-speed, 180 degree drift. Well done, bravo. // AjS
:: Youku.com, one of China’s leading Internet video Web sites, is using Twitter (@Youkubuzz) as part of a push to share its content with non-Chinese reading audiences. [Youku.com is almost entirely in Chinese.]
With each of its Twitter updates, Youku shares a new video with its “followers.” For example: “Real-life Street Fighters! (A stop-motion short film made by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts) http://snurl.com/4qipi“
Youku.com manager of international public relations , says Youku “wants to help English-speaking / foreign audiences better understand the site and the rich content it has to offer.”
Youku seems to also be courting marketing and advertising dollars as Lin goes on to say, “the most influential digital strategists and media planners in China with international ad agencies and PR firms are foreigners…we want all of them to have the opportunity to sample our content and perhaps consider Youku cooperation as part of their next brand strategy or digital campaign.”
Stevin Lin (aka Flypig), Youku's spin doctor (despite his YouTube t-shirt) and all-around digital badass
“Although still valuable, blogging is not really cool anymore…its kinda static…but Twitter is geeky chic, cutting edge, and dynamic, with constant bite-size updates. It’s a platform that attracts early adopters, serial communicators, and influential digital opinion leaders who are passionate about sharing information and compelling content, so, it makes a lot of sense for us do use it as a PR / marketing / Internet word of mouth channel. We write every one of those 140 characters…send us a message and we’ll respond…nothing is automated…it’s a real “human voice” of Youku. What I hate most, even in the Twitter world, are those lame syndication robots that spew out non-sense 2.0 noise – from Flickr, Delicious, Google Reader, etc.” says Lin.
Youku also has an English email newsletter and an English blog, which is rumored to become a video podcast sometime soon.
// AjS
