Youku Tudou comes up with smartphones

Youku Tudou has jumped onto the smartphone bandwagon — the first by an Internet video website.

The popular video site is keen to tap into the mobile Internet sector which has 1.1 billion users.

Youku Tudou will release the phone with hardware vendor Doov. The phone has rotatable camera and offers other functions for shooting, editing, sharing and watching video, the country's No. 1 video website said during the two-day Tudou Festival 2014 which closed yesterday.

Tudou President Yang Weiqiang said the new phone was designed for young mobile video lovers who are keen to catch the latest fashion trend.

Tudou's mobile client-end user base is already 100 million. Users have changed video watching habits from personal computers to mobile phones, said Yang, who did not reveal any other details of the phone, especially its selling price.

In 2012, Youku merged with Tudou to establish China's biggest Internet video firm Youku Tudou.

Youku is strong on film and TV programs while Tudou focuses on user-generated video contents.

Tudou also announced that it plans to invest 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) to support user-generated programs covering music, game, cooking, beauty and other sectors.