China’s UUSee Scores $23.5 Million

With millions of users, an estimated $10 million in revenue this year from ads and promotional contests, licensed content from major Chinese networks, and expected profitability by the end of this year, it’s no surprise that China’s UUSee.com attracted interest from venture capital funds like Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund, Highland Capital Partners, Steamboat Ventures, Sequoia Capital China and SIG. Together, they’ve invested $23.5 million in this round of funding, with Barry Schuler of DFJ and Dan Nova of Highland joining UUSee’s board.

UUSee users download an application for their desktop, allowing the machine to become a node in their peer-to-peer network. A press release in January claimed an installed base at around 30 million. They offer over 60 live channels, including China’s largest network, CCTV. The real prize is the mobile market, and to that end they’ve developed an application and made an acquisition to serve the hundreds of millions of handsets in China.

$23.5 million is just a little more than Google and a number of other investors pumped into Xunlei at the end of last year. In another auspicious note for the company, their Chinese Spring Festival coverage garnered 5.5 million impressions over two weeks according to Nielsen NetRatings.