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SCMP Reporter

Weiku, a Beijing-based entertainment Web site with 12 million page hits a month, is closing down after almost two years of operation as the company has spent more money on content than managers expect to earn from revenues.

The independent content provider, whose name was intended to rhyme with 'way cool' and had a similar meaning in Chinese, carried downloadable songs by Chinese bands, movie trailers from Imar studios and Chinese-language travel information.

Weiku users could chat on instant-messenger service, while regular visitors could stack up points to earn free CDs.

Dave O'Dell, Weiku's production manager, said the site was big, but not big enough to survive.

'You're either No 1, No 2 or number one million,' he said.

Mr O'Dell, who has started four Web sites, said the Internet business was dying in China.

'We actually created more content. We were more in the know [than competitors],' he said.

'We really ran a tight budget. We knew how to spend money. But the investment to keep us going was ridiculous.'

Bigger-name mainland entertainment sites include FM365

.com and Wangwa. Mainstream portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com also have pages with entertainment news.

'Most Chinese people look at Sohu or Sina. Their movie content is not small. Weiku has a small part of the Net viewership,' said Feng Cheng, who runs a Beijing culture club, which has a Web site.

Weiku all but collapsed in October, laying off most of its 70 staff of mid-20s Chinese to seek other Web-design jobs.

Mr O'Dell, also a founder of the site, said he would leave at the end of this month and turn his back on dotcoms.

Weiku's backer, Rock Records, of Taiwan, did not want to invest more than the US$4 million it had pumped into the site since early last year without any return, he said.

The company's satellites, servers and staff had cost more than US$50,000 a month, but there was little advertising or other revenue to offset it.

Mr O'Dell said Weiku had hoped to make money by popularising the chat service, so advertisers would take notice, and convert songs and movies into discs for users to buy via the site.

However, he said local managers and Rock Records realised China's e-climate was not warm to their ideas.

Today, www.weiku.com links to one of Rock Records' pages. Those left at Weiku are running an offshoot of Rock Records that fixes computer music files to bar copying or extended use of downloaded songs.



Heavy spending on content leads to Weiku demise