Disney Expands Investments in China

NEW YORK, June 6:
Steamboat Ventures, a venture-capital firm established on behalf of The Walt
Disney Company, has invested in three Chinese start-up companies that have a strong
presence in Internet broadcasting, including the country’s largest Web TV
operator UUSee, which also distributes programming from the state-run
government channel CCTV.

In March, Steamboat
invested—along with Silicon Valley firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson and
Sequoia Capital—in UUSee, China's largest Web TV operator with more than
36 million registered users. UUSee is the only peer-to-peer network approved by
China and distributes programming from state-run CCTV. Steamboat also put money
into the video-sharing Web site 56.com in December.

Along with Draper Fisher
Jurvetson and Sequoia Capital, Steamboat Ventures has also invested in the
Shanghai-based CTS Media, a company that inserts advertisements into streaming
online video. CTS is also the exclusive advertising platform provider to
Internet TV provider BestTV. According to the AP, Disney and several other
studios reportedly inked a deal with BestTV to distribute movies through a
video-on-demand platform in development.