Youku Tudou, one of China’s top online video platforms, has hired Edward Su as group chief operating officer.
The company also underlined its expansion as a major film and TV content producer with the restructuring of its content management and production functions into nine ‘content centers. Each focuses on a specific genre of programming: TV drama, news, variety shows, movies, games, animation, music, education and entertainment information.
Su was previously CEO of China Group for Havas Worldwide, a multinational integrated marketing communications agency.
Allen Huilong Zhu, CEO of Heyi Pictures, will manage the group’s ‘Movie Center,’ while Youku Tudou’s chief content officer Sunny Xiangyang Zhu has been appointed CEO of Heyi Studios, which produces original TV dramas and innovative web-native content.
Dong Yawei, chief marketing officer, will head the ‘Innovative Marketing Business Unit’ to develop programmatic advertising, video e-commerce, big data and other new marketing models.
Following the restructuring Youku Tudou will have six business units: the Youku platform, the Tudou platform, Heyi Pictures, Heyi Studios, Innovative Marketing and Cloud Entertainment, which focuses on gaming and OTT.
“We’re well poised to rapidly ramp up our content creation, accelerate our revenue growth and diversification, and fully capitalize on the opportunities that the converging online and offline worlds bring us,” said Victor Koo, chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou.