1. COMPANY REPORT Internet TV Provider PPTV, China
HDTV with IPTV
Provider PPTV
• Offers more than 100 TV channels
as well as hundreds of thousands of
programming hours for download
• Can only be received domestically
in China
• Large IPTV provider with more
than 100 million users
• Expansion into the OTT market for
TVs and receivers
• HDTV is an area of growth and
makes PayTV possible
■ In the Zhangjiang
Microelectronics Port, an
office complex directly at the
Zhangjiang High-Tech Park
station of the #2 Metro line, you’ll
find PPTV’s headquarters. 500
people work here; in the branch
office in Beijing are another 300
employees and at their third
location in Guangzhou are yet
another 100 employees.
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2. COMPANY REPORT Internet TV Provider PPTV, China
China’s Largest
IPTV Provider ë Shanghai
is Expanding
with HDTV
With more than 100 million unique of China, PPTV only shows videos
users per month, the Chinese IPTV pro- cleared for foreign transmission.
vider PPTV - from what we know - is
the largest IPTV provider in the world. How can you see PPTVs TV channels
With the expansion into HDTV (High and videos? “We have a solution for ev-
Definition TV), PPTV’s programming ery situation”, declares Steven Shan.
packages are also becoming interesting “PC and laptop viewers simply need to
for receiver manufacturers. We met up go to our website to view the channels
with PPTVs Vice President and General directly. Or you can download our own
Manager of the Multiple Terminal Busi- PPTV software.” It’s available in all the
ness Unit, Steven Shan, at the compa- different formats: for Windows and Mac
ny’s headquarters in Shanghai to find operating systems plus there are spe-
out more about what they are planning. cial versions for the iPhone and iPad
as well as the corresponding Android
PPTV was founded in 2004 by Bill Yao. versions for Smartphones and tablets.
Bill Yao was born in 1980 and that made For each “terminal” PPTV provides the
him only 24 years old when he started matching user interface; this explains
PPTV! His idea was to take all of the the term Multiple Terminal Business
new satellite channels from the Chinese Unit that Steven Shan runs and that
provinces and make them available is responsible for the matching of the
for everyone via the Internet, in other
words, stream them. The idea caught
on and in 2006 Bill Yao expanded PPTVs
offering to include video-on-demand
and since then PPTV has climbed its
way to the top of the Internet TV and
video ladder with ease. For Chinese
speaking viewers inside of China, PPTV
(www.pptv.com) is the first website to
go to when it comes to TV and video via
the Internet.
The reason that PPTV is concentrat-
ing on the domestic Chinese market
has to do with the company’s business
strategy: “PPTV is free”; explains Ste-
ven Shan, “it is financed through adver-
tisements that appear before the start
of a video and through banner ads as
well as other ad methods such as pop
ups.” PPTV’s ad customers have no in-
terest in making their ads available to
viewers outside of China or paying for ■Bill Yao is Founder and
it. On top of that there are copyright is- President of the IPTV
sues. “Since we concentrate on domes- provider PPTV
tic ads, we don’t have to worry about
- with just a few exceptions - the rights
involved with showing TV channels or
videos outside of China.” The IP ad-
dress of every viewer is checked (Geo
location); if the IP address lies outside
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3. software for each type of interface. compared to its SD video offerings.
● 1.4 MB is used for TVs with nor- “With these high data transmission
And now it gets exciting. Depend- mal sized TV screens rates, we’ve entered into cooperation
ing on whether the picture is displayed with Internet service provides”, ex-
on an iPhone, a laptop or a big-screen ● 2.3 MB is used for big-screen TVs plains Steven Shan to us. “For this rea-
TV, different data transfer rates are son with HDTV we are switching to a
required. “Our software automatically ● 4 MB for HDTV PayTV model.” PPTV is making HDTV
adjusts itself to the user’s display”, we available as a PayTV service. “Most
learn from Steven Shan, “We deliver ● 8 MB for big-screen HDTVs ISPs can still handle data speeds from
nine different speeds.” Steven Shan 1.4 to 2.3 MB. Faster speeds requite a
lists them for us: The last four categories are the most fiber-optic connection.”
interesting for us since these involve
● 50 kB is the streaming speed for OTT. “These high data transfer rates PPTV founder Bill Yao has found an
simple mobile telephones known by are only used if the PPTV software is interesting strategy here: you start
PPTV as Feature Phones. The picture already integrated into the TV.” In 2009 with free services, offer more and more
quality is sufficient for the small dis- PPTV began developing this OTT tech- value to the services until you reach a
play screens used by mobile phones nology and in 2010 the first TVs began point where the customers are willing
appearing on the Chinese market in- to pay for the services. It’s a strategy
● 150 kB is for simple Smartphones tegrated with PPTV’s OTT function. In that many Internet startups have used.
with larger displays 2011 there were already 2.5 million of The Japanese investment firm Soft-
these OTT compatible TVs on the mar- bank has recognized the potential with
● 300 kB is for real Smartphones ket; for 2012 PPTV is expecting this PPTV; in 2011 Softbank acquired a 35%
number to increase to 6-7 million. “The
● 500 kB is used if the viewer is entire market in China accounts for
1. Vincent Tao has been CEO of PPTV since
watching PPTV channels on his laptop roughly 40 million TV sets each year, 2009. Before that he worked at Microsoft.
or PC 10% of them will be OTT compatible.” 2. Steven Shan is Vice President and
General Manager of PPTV’s Multiple
● 800 kB is used for iPhone or iPad When it comes to HDTV, PPTV’s busi- Terminal Business Unit. He’s showing the
PPTV application on an iPad; there’s also a
users ness model looks a little bit different matching version for the iPhone.
1 2
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4. ■PPTV’s receptionist
in Shanghai
stake in PPTV. Softbank is also involved
with two other top Chinese Internet
firms: the sales platform Alibaba and
the social network service renren. By
the way, the Chinese government also
owns a stake in PPTV.
PPTV has a huge investment in all of
this: “We operate around 5000 servers
at more than 200 locations all over Chi-
na.” This guarantees that every user
in China can obtain the best possible
bandwidth for downloading TV chan-
nels and VoD services.
PPTV has very impressively shown
how an Internet startup managed to
climb to the top of the ladder in a new
market segment in just a few years.
It’s a segment that, with the steady in-
crease in high speed Internet connec-
tions, is an important addition to the
programming offered via satellite or
terrestrially. PPTV shows that the in-
tegration of Internet services (OTT) is
an important task for manufacturers of
TVs and receivers.
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5. 1
3
2
1. A look into
the Marketing
department. The
posters on the walls
and ceiling remind
the workers to always
be strong and to
work towards PPTV’s
success.
2. An example of TV
reception on a laptop
using the PPTV
software. More than
100 channels from
China are streamed
by PPTV. They can
only be received if
the users IP address
is located inside
China.
3. Crystal Xu is PR
supervisor and is
standing in front of
the “P” from PPTV
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