Chinese video streaming site 56.com announced an open platform strategy yesterday that the company hopes will help expand its user base. The platform, which can be found at dev.56.com, gives pro users and developers easy access to 56.com’s API as well as an SDK and other features that should make it easier for companies and developers to make use of 56′s video technology in apps and on their own sites.
The open platform is 56′s latest push in the direction of a UGC (user-generated content) focused site. In China’s crowded and highly expensive online video marketplace, 56.com has clearly decided it’s better to try to position itself as the home of UGC and as an easy platform for developers with video needs rather than attempting to compete directly with the big guys in buying up the rights to expensive TV shows or paying to produce original programming
But the open strategy doesn’t really set 56.com apart from Youku and Tudou. Both companies have their own developer sites that provide access to similar tools (dev.youku.com and dev.tudou.com respectively), although neither of those sites are as slickly-designed as 56.com’s new one is.
56′s new platform has already attracted some big partners during its internal beta, including social networking giant RenRen. But those partners are not exclusive, and 56.com is still a long way from the lead when it comes to online video in China:
[via Sina Tech]
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