优酷 (Youku)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
优酷 (Youku) is a Chinese video service that belongs to the Alibaba group. The platform describes itself in the driest possible terms: a "video service platform: playing, publishing, searching and sharing video". On the storefront, licensed series, films, shows and anime with a VIP subscription sit next to user clips, which live by their own rules.
There have historically been two entrances to the platform, and they do not replace each other. 优酷号 (Youku Hao) is a creator's own account inside Youku, with levels, a traffic revenue section, broadcasts and product storefronts. 大鱼号 (Dayu Hao) is Alibaba's shared publishing account: material is published once and spreads across Youku, Tudou, the UC browser and the clients of the Taobao ecosystem.
Worth knowing in advance: the platform's help materials have barely been updated. The 优酷号 sections are dated July 2020, the 大鱼号 ones 2017. All the figures below are given together with their publication date, and checking whether they are current is up to you.
Who's here
Youku publishes no audience figures of its own on its open pages: we found neither MAUs, nor subscriber counts, nor a country breakdown. The storefront carries only a service description and a set of sections: series, anime, film, shows, short series, kids, documentary, sport, live streams, games. The interface is Chinese, the language attribute is not set in the home page markup, and no versions in other languages are declared; an indirect tie to a jurisdiction is ICP licence No. 京ICP证060288号 in the footer of the help centre.
Distribution of material goes wider than one site: 大鱼号 describes itself as an integrated publishing system of the Alibaba group and lists the products your material can reach — UC, Youku, Tudou, Quark, Shenma, Taopiaopiao, Alipay, Taobao, Tmall, DingTalk, Damai, Fliggy and others. This is the platform's statement about its own network, not measured reach.
Getting started
Registration in 优酷号 is described briefly: open the mp.youku.com dashboard, register, accept the agreement, enter an invitation code, choose the type of entity and fill in the details. An individual needs verification through a Taobao account; organisations upload a stamped letter of authority. The check fits within 30 minutes. Note the invitation code — this scenario does not assume open registration off the street.
大鱼号 has a different procedure and, importantly for a foreign author, a more open one: four types of confirmation are provided for — for individuals and organisations, residents and non-residents of China. The number of accounts is limited: 3 accounts per individual's identity document, 15 per company, 150 per organisation. An application is reviewed within 3 working days; on refusal the documents must be corrected within 5 calendar days, otherwise the account is cancelled. Those who will be refused permanently are named separately: forgery and trading in personal data, mass registration of accounts to be grown later, accounts for the sake of marketing and SEO promotion, mass theft of other people's material.
What you can publish
Upload limits differ by method: through the web page one file may be no larger than 2 GB, for VIP subscribers up to 4 GB; through the desktop client up to 10 GB, for VIP up to 15 GB. There are many accepted formats: wmv, avi, rm, rmvb, mpg, 3gp, mov, mp4, mkv, flv, vob and others; the same place has a table of quality thresholds (HD from 960×400, "1080p" from 1920×800, with a duration of at least 15 seconds). The material is dated 4 May 2017. Processing takes time: transcoding lasts roughly three times as long as the clip itself, and moderation finishes within an hour after it.
Youku publishes its content rules as a separate document, "Video publishing norms and penalty measures", in force for all users and based on article 16 of the Chinese regulation on internet audio-visual broadcasting services. There are six sections: politically harmful material, pornography and vulgarity, horror and cruelty, contradiction of values, unlawful acts and "other". The list is specific down to details — prohibited are distortion of the history of the anti-Japanese war, defamation of the images of revolutionary leaders, showing the making of weapons, cruelty to animals, "children's horror stories", and piling up show and performer names in a headline for the sake of clicks.
How to grow
The platform does have its own explanation of the algorithm, old as it is. The 大鱼号 help says that the system first assesses a clip, shows it to those most likely to be interested, and from the reaction of that first group decides whether to widen or narrow the exposure, and that declared originality gives a chance of a larger initial exposure.
In 优酷号 the role of a "growth algorithm" is played by the level system. There are seven of them; the month's level is calculated from accumulated mobile-device views over the previous calendar month and is updated by 24:00 on the first day of the month. The level hands out rights: according to the description of privileges, broadcasts and product storefronts are available to everyone who has joined, the traffic revenue section switches on at silver level, and advertising orders, priority moderation and priority recommendations from gold.
Path to monetization
The traffic revenue section in 优酷号. It is calculated per thousand views, with views by followers and non-followers priced separately; the right switches on automatically at silver level, and in the month of promotion the rate is doubled. The rate depends on originality, category, viewing device, author activity and level. The platform's own example: 1 million views at a rate of 5 yuan per thousand yields 5,000 yuan. The uplift for follower views is calculated separately with a multiplier from 2 to 60.
Donations on broadcasts. The share depends on how regularly you stream: if fewer than 10 "qualifying" broadcast days accumulate in a calendar month, the platform takes 40% and the author keeps 60%; at 10 days or more the platform takes 10% and the author 90%; a qualifying day is one with at least an hour on air. Settlement is monthly. The platform warns that these shares are a temporary measure.
A bonus for moving up a level. First reaching platinum level pays 6,000 yuan, "black gold" and above 20,000 yuan, once per step; the lists are published on the 10th of the following month and the money arrives on the 15th. Separately, the platform itself finds strong authors and offers a contract under which if income falls below an agreed amount a guaranteed minimum is paid — the benchmark is named as "over ten thousand yuan a month".
The advertising section in 大鱼号. Here a direct rate is published: the author receives 30% of the advertising revenue earned by original material, after sales discounts are deducted, and only authors with confirmed originality can join.
Withdrawing money. In 大鱼号 the threshold is 100 yuan on the balance (for owners of an "own channel", 1,000 yuan), and settlement is made for a calendar month around the 20th of the following one. The payment procedure depends on residency: resident individuals are paid automatically with income tax withheld, while companies and overseas recipients apply themselves and issue a bill or invoice exactly matching the amount; overseas recipients need SWIFT, and for Europe and the US an IBAN and the crediting currency, and an overseas individual receives money only into an account opened in their own name. Taxes: for Chinese companies the platform is not a tax agent and requires a VAT invoice (6% for ordinary payers, 3% for small ones), while for resident individuals it withholds income tax itself.
Tools and automation
Youku does have official programmatic access, but not for the creator dashboard — for embedding video on other people's sites. 优酷视频云 (Youku Video Cloud) describes itself as a service where "in three steps" you connect an external player with no advertising and no Youku branding, with uploading from a PC or a server, private hosting and protection against link copying. The packages are named right on the storefront: 5,000 yuan a year for 10,000 views, 15,000 yuan a year for 100,000 views, 8,000 yuan a year for 5,000 views on the education plan.
It is fairer to name the limitation up front: this is paid video hosting for companies, not an interface to the creator dashboard. We found no publicly documented API for scheduling to 优酷号 or 大鱼号, nor any third-party services whose support for Youku is confirmed by their own documentation. Of built-in tools the platform names the creation centre, a diagnostic assistant and online support.
Limits and rules
The sanctions for breaching the publishing rules are graded: for an ordinary breach the clip is deleted; for a serious one uploading is closed for 7–15 days; for a particularly serious one the whole profile is cleared, the account is closed and re-registration from the same phone number is prohibited. A 大鱼号 block is as a rule not lifted: you have to register again, and there is a financial consequence: if the account is blocked permanently at a moment when a withdrawal has started but the money has not yet arrived, the payout is frozen. Manipulation is addressed separately: views obtained by deceptive methods do not count as valid, and for serious breaches an author may be stripped of the right to take part in the advertising section and have unpaid income withheld.
Who it's for
Youku is worth considering for anyone working for a Chinese audience and prepared to play by local rules. The economics are described more clearly than on many neighbouring platforms: a rate per thousand views, a multiplier for follower views, a 90% share of donations at ten or more days on air a month. One possibility rare among Chinese platforms is worth noting separately: 大鱼号 officially provides for confirmation of overseas individuals and companies and payouts via SWIFT and IBAN.
Youku does not suit those who need predictability and fresh documentation. Key help sections have not been updated since 2017 and 2020, registration in 优酷号 requires an invitation code, there is no public API for scheduling, and the content rules are noticeably stricter than on Western platforms.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Social listening:
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «视频服务平台,提供视频播放,视频发布,视频搜索,视频分享»
__
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform describes itself as follows: «视频服务平台,提供视频播放,视频发布,视频搜索,视频分享»
source, checked 2026-07-28
the help sections about 优酷号 are dated July 2020, and those about 大鱼号 2017; there are no fresher versions on the open pages
The publication dates are shown by the help centre itself next to each article
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
registration in 优酷号 goes through mp.youku.com: an agreement, an invitation code, choosing the type of entity; an individual needs verification through a Taobao account, organisations a stamped letter of authority; the check takes about 30 minutes · the source is dated 2020-07-09
The article is dated 9 July 2020; where the invitation code comes from, the help does not explain
source, checked 2026-07-28
大鱼号 provides for four types of confirmation: a Chinese individual, an overseas individual, a Chinese organisation, an overseas organisation · the source is dated 2017-04-24
The article is dated 24 April 2017; admission of non-residents is rare for Chinese platforms
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
Until an account has passed identity verification (实名认证), comments, replies in threads and 弹幕 bullet comments over the video are closed, as are the rights of a paid subscription; viewing meanwhile works. Verbatim from the Youku user agreement: «如果不进行实名认证，您仍可浏览我方平台的内容和视音频，但您将无法进行评论、跟帖、弹幕等功能，也无法享受付费会员的相关权利和服务» (our translation: without identity verification you can still browse the platform's material and video and audio, but the comment, thread-reply and 弹幕 features will be unavailable to you, as will the rights and services of paid membership). The same place says verbatim: «如您不进行实名认证，则我方平台保留停止该账号在我方平台使用的权利» (our translation: if you do not pass identity verification, the platform reserves the right to stop that account being used on the platform)
This is Youku's direct statement in its user agreement (version 2019v1, updated 30.12.2019). The domains youku.com, www.youku.com, csc.youku.com and mapp.youku.com have no robots.txt file: requests return either a 404 page or an empty response, so no crawling prohibition is set
source, checked 2026-08-07
Identity verification: link a personal mobile number or a third-party account. Verbatim from the agreement: «如您已存在优酷账户，但尚未进行实名认证（如未提供手机号），请您尽快绑定个人手机号或其他第三方账号（如我方账号、支付宝账号、微信账号、QQ账号、微博账号等）» (our translation: if you already have a Youku account but have not passed identity verification — for example, have not supplied a phone number — please link a personal mobile number or a third-party account as soon as possible: Alipay, WeChat, QQ, Weibo and the like)
The condition is named by the platform itself. Separately the agreement stipulates the state of not being registered at all, verbatim: «如果您未申请注册流程，您仍可浏览网站内容，但不能发表评论、弹幕或观看付费内容» (our translation: an unregistered visitor may browse the site's content but may not post comments, send 弹幕 or watch paid content)
source, checked 2026-08-07
3 大鱼号 accounts can be opened on one individual's identity document, 15 on a company and 150 on an organisation
When a rejected application is cancelled, the quota on the document is reduced by one
source, checked 2026-07-28
a 大鱼号 application is reviewed within 3 working days; on refusal the documents must be corrected within 5 calendar days, otherwise the account is cancelled
The result is communicated by SMS
source, checked 2026-07-28
permanent refusal follows for forgery and trading in personal data, mass registration of accounts to be grown later, forged documents, accounts for the sake of marketing and SEO promotion, and mass theft of other people's material · the source is dated 2017-04-24
The article is dated 24 April 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
大鱼号 describes itself as an integrated publishing system of the Alibaba group and lists its distribution products: UC, Youku, Tudou, Quark, Shenma, Taopiaopiao, Alipay, Taobao, Tmall, DingTalk, Damai, Fliggy and others
The platform's statement about its own network, not measured reach
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
accepted are wmv, avi, asf, rm, rmvb, ram, mpg, mpeg, 3gp, mov, mp4, m4v, dv, mkv, flv, vob and others; HD from 960×400, "ultra clear" from 1280×544, 1080p from 1920×800, with a duration of at least 15 seconds
The average bitrate thresholds differ by codec; for H.264 they are above 0.8, 1.5 and 3.5 Mbps
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
transcoding usually lasts roughly three times as long as the clip itself; moderation finishes within an hour after transcoding · the source is dated 2017-04-27
The article is dated 27 April 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
the "Video publishing norms and penalty measures" apply to all users and are based on article 16 of the regulation on internet audio-visual broadcasting services; there are six sections: politically harmful material, pornography and vulgarity, horror and cruelty, contradiction of values, unlawful acts, and other · the source is dated 2020-07-06
The article is dated 6 July 2020
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
优酷号 has seven levels; the month's level is calculated from accumulated mobile-device views over the previous calendar month and is updated by 24:00 on the first day of the month; a new account starts at bronze
The mapping of levels to specific view counts is published as an image rather than as text
source, checked 2026-07-28
broadcasts and product storefronts are available to everyone who has joined; the traffic revenue section switches on at silver level; advertising orders, priority moderation and priority recommendations from gold · the source is dated 2020-07-09
The article is dated 9 July 2020
source, checked 2026-07-28
the system first assesses a clip, shows it to users likely to be interested, and from the reaction of that first group decides whether to widen or narrow the exposure; accounts with a high index get a larger starting audience · the source is dated 2017-03-31
The description of the algorithm in the 大鱼号 help, dated 31 March 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the traffic revenue section is calculated per thousand views, with views by followers and non-followers priced separately; the right switches on automatically at silver level, and in the month of promotion the rate is doubled
The platform's example: 1 million views at a rate of 5 yuan per thousand yield 5,000 yuan
source, checked 2026-07-28
the uplift for follower views is calculated separately with a multiplier from 2 to 60 depending on the volume of views, interactions and follower growth · the source is dated 2020-07-09
The article is dated 9 July 2020
source, checked 2026-07-28
with fewer than 10 "qualifying" broadcast days a month the platform takes 40% and the author keeps 60%; at 10 days or more the platform takes 10% and the author 90%; a qualifying day is at least an hour on air
The platform calls these shares a temporary measure that may change
source, checked 2026-07-28
first reaching platinum level pays 6,000 yuan, "black gold" and above 20,000 yuan, once per step; the lists are published on the 10th of the following month and the money arrives on the 15th
The same bonus cannot be received twice
source, checked 2026-07-28
under a contract with the platform, if income falls below an agreed amount a guaranteed minimum is paid; the benchmark is named as "over ten thousand yuan a month"
The platform offers the contract itself, and the specific amount depends on the author
source, checked 2026-07-28
in 大鱼号 the author receives 30% of the advertising revenue earned by original material, after sales discounts are deducted · the source is dated 2017-03-29
The article is dated 29 March 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
only authors with confirmed originality can join the advertising section; clips must be original or lawfully licensed and must not contain explicit advertising
The check is automatic; there is no manual review of the application
source, checked 2026-07-28
Payout minimum. the 大鱼号 withdrawal threshold is 100 yuan on the balance; for owners of an "own channel" it is 1,000 yuan; the remainder is carried over to the next time · the source is dated 2017-03-31
The article is dated 31 March 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
the settlement period is a calendar month, and settlement is made around the 20th of the following month
Income is counted from the date of joining the programme, not from the date a clip was uploaded
source, checked 2026-07-28
resident individuals are paid automatically with income tax withheld; companies and overseas recipients apply themselves and issue a bill or invoice exactly matching the amount; overseas recipients need SWIFT, and for Europe and the US an IBAN and the crediting currency · the source is dated 2017-05-05
The article is dated 5 May 2017; an open payout route for a non-resident is rare for Chinese platforms
source, checked 2026-07-28
resident individuals receive money into a bank account or Alipay, organisations only into a settlement account, and overseas individuals only into an account opened in their own name
The Alipay details must match the account owner's data
source, checked 2026-07-28
for Chinese companies the platform is not a tax agent and requires a VAT invoice (6% for ordinary payers, 3% for small ones); for resident individuals it withholds income tax itself · the source is dated 2020-07-06
The article is dated 6 July 2020
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
through the web page one file may be no larger than 2 GB, for VIP subscribers up to 4 GB; through the desktop client up to 10 GB, for VIP up to 15 GB · the source is dated 2017-05-04
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
for an ordinary breach the clip is deleted; for a serious one uploading is closed for 7–15 days; for a particularly serious one the profile is cleared, the account is closed and re-registration from the same phone number is prohibited
The sanctions are described in the same publishing norms
source, checked 2026-07-28
a 大鱼号 block, by the platform's own statement, is as a rule not lifted: you have to register again and access to the creation centre is lost · the source is dated 2017-03-31
The article is dated 31 March 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
if an account is blocked permanently at a moment when a withdrawal has started but the money has not arrived, the payout is frozen · the source is dated 2017-08-09
The article is dated 9 August 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
views obtained by deceptive methods do not count as valid; for serious breaches an author may be stripped of the right to take part in the advertising section and have unpaid income withheld · the source is dated 2017-03-29
The article is dated 29 March 2017
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
the footer of the help centre states licence 京ICP证060288号
Registration in Beijing
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
优酷视频云 offers an external player with no advertising and no Youku branding, uploading from a PC, a client or a server, and private hosting; the packages are 5,000 yuan a year for 10,000 views, 15,000 for 100,000, and 8,000 for 5,000 on the education plan
This is paid video hosting for companies, not an interface to the creator dashboard
source, checked 2026-07-28
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